Gotta Review 'Em All, Part #42: Sprigatito to Pawmot

Finally! The ninth generation of Pokemon is upon us, and I've had the opportunity to play both Violet and Scarlet to experience the surprisingly large different sets of Pokemon. I do believe that this is the first time that the two versions actually had a proper way of differentiating them by having the Paradox Pokemon as a differentiating factor between the two alternate realities instead of merely just different legendaries and different populations of certain species. 

Also, after the multi-part eighth generation where I had to review the Sword/Shield base game, then the two separate DLC segments, and then the batch introduced in Legends: Arceus... this one had a gigantic amount introduced on the two base games. Doubtless that Scarlet/Violet might have DLC in the future, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there. 

Anyway, I actually think that the region of Paldea might have some of my favourite Pokemon diversity as a whole, in addition to actually having open-world gameplay that is actually enjoyable and integrated relatively well to the main game experience -- like the Sword/Shield DLC's (though not the main game) and Legends: Arceus. I really does help that this is a region that isn't overburdened by way too many 'gimmick' forms, unlike the Gigantamax of Galar. There is a gimmick to some of the Pokemon designs, but it's one that actually feels like it has a story/world-building element to it. 

I will quickly note that, yes, just like every damn game in the past couple of years, we do get yet another Pokemon variant, the replacement to Mega Evolutions, Primal Reversions, Z-Moves, Dynamax, Gigantamax, and Alpha/Totem/Noble Pokemon... and this time, it's called called Tera Forms. Or Terastralizing, as the verb version of the word is called. Basically Tera Pokemon transform into crystals, and gain a gigantic, tacky, ugly-ass giant item representing their type (a lightbulb for Electric, or balloons for Flying, for example) that turn them into a mono-type version of that type. I find this rather bland, and I think I've bitched enough about the Terastralize gimmick in my Let's Play of Pokemon Violet. Thankfully it does feel that other than the (admittedly gorgeous) animations, the Tera Forms did seem pretty phoned in by the designers, which is just as well since they clearly spent more time into doing other things for the game!

Also, I'm making a bit of an executive decision to change the reviews to be rated from 0 to 5 stars (well, balls) and change the maximum number to 6. Not just because 6 balls are much more on-brand for Pokemon, with the six-Pokemon-party, but also because so much of my Galar/Hisui reviews fall in the neutral 3/5 segment and I really do feel like there's a lot of my older reviews that had me going 'technically 3.5'. I've gone back all the way to Bulbasaur and gone through 905+ designs all the way to Enamorus and updated every single one to be ranked out of 6, and rejiggered some of the newer generations to fit with my opinions of the designs at the moment, some of which simply... failed to be as memorable as I thought they would be. 

Anyway, new region, a whooping total of 100+ new Pokemon designs. Let's go! 

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#906-908: Sprigatito, Floragato & Meowscarada

• Types: Grass [Sprigatito, Floragato], Grass/Dark [Meowscarada]
• Japanese names: Nyaoha, Nyarote, Masukanya
• Categories: Grass Cat [Sprigatito, Floragato], Magician [Meowscarada]

As with most regions, we start off with the starters, and this time our Grass-type starter is a cute little cat called Sprigatito! It... it sure is a green gatito (kitten), and it sure looks cute. I didn't realize that the pattern on its face forms the shape of a leaf. I don't think it's based on any specific cat breed, though I will also admit that I'm not at all well-versed in cat breeds. 

It's dex entries are relatively generic, as far as Grass-type Pokemon goes. It's a grass-type that has a nice sweet scent that becomes stronger in the sun, and its fur is in similar composition to plants... that latter detail is a cute little description of the strange 'planimal' vibes that most Grass-type Pokemon have... but overall, every description about Sprigatito seems to be something most other Grass-types can also do. 

Anyway, it's a cute cat. Inoffensive, adorable enough to be a starter Pokemon, but doesn't really do anything too special and I honestly find it rather run-of-the-mill. Of course, the moment Sprigatito is revealed, everyone, once again, dreaded the fact that just like Fennekin and Litten before it, Sprigatito would become bipedal and be a generic furry anthro animal-person...

And these 'worrywarts' are right. Sprigatito goes bipedal immediately with its first evolution, Floragato, which I would definitely say as my least favourite part of this evolutionary line. Again, Floragato really does feel like a very generic bipedal cat-man, and we have a lot of bipedal "furries" even in Pokemon and Floragato is definitely not the best-looking out of them. 

But where Floragato (and his evolution, Meowscarada) in my opinion really lacks in visual design, he shines in the flavour. So much that I went from just handwaving the Sprigatito line as my least-favourite Paldean starter to me really not minding them at all! I mean, I still think Floragato looks very bland and not at all like what a starter evolution should look like, but that's before you find out about the yo-yo.

So Floragato's whole gimmick is that he's got a hard flower bud, a pink little thing that I think is meant to resemble one of those boutonnieres, those flowers placed on a suit. And Floragato uses this yo-yo as a weapon, seemingly levitating it with Psychic powers of sorts in its official art... but as the pokedex and the in-game animations show you, Floragato is actually using a thin, almost-invisible vine as a yo-yo wire to manipulate this bud! Oh yeah, and the bud has retractable blades when it gets launched at the enemy! And you see, the line becomes Grass/Dark as Meowscarada, and I absolutely love how the 'Dark' here is actually revolving around trickery, with the invisible wire-line being a form of fighting dirty. I love that!

And... Meowscarada isn't bad, I guess. I still don't like 'anthro' Pokemon, but Meowscarada does make me roll my eyes the way something like Cinderace or Inteleon from the previous generation did. I do like how Meowscarada's 'mask' and 'cape' seems to be made out of leaf-like protrusions, and I particularly appreciate the leaf vein detailing found on the inner side of the wing-capes. Also do like the little pink flower-neck-thing too. And Floragato's yo-yo has transformed into a flower bomb that it still manipulates with invisible vine-wires, causing it to hover around him like some sort of psychic weapon. The pokedex gives us the reason about how Meowscarada's very distinct cape has reflective fur that helps to camouflage the stem of the flower, which is cool!

And with so many actually supernatural Pokemon in the Psychic, Dark, Fairy and Ghost typings, perhaps the act of levitating or manipulating a weapon doesn't sound all that special... but I absolutely love that Meowscarada actually makes use of this, bamboozling its foes with its floating flower bombs. In a setting where psychic and magical feats are commonplace, Meowscarada uses old-fashioned sleight of hand! Its signature move, Flower Trick, has Meowcarada throw a bouquet that explodes in its enemies' face. Very classy, cat!

The fantasy of this guy being like some sort of classy magician thief, especially with both his names referencing masquerade balls, seems to indicate that Meowscarada is inspired by picaresque novels -- something I'm reading about a lot, coincidentally, thanks to my current playthrough of Persona 5, a game that uses 'Phantom Thieves' very much as a motif. It even features a masked cat as one of its heroes! 

Anyway, I was very dismissive about Floragato and Meowscarada, and doubtless that if I did this review back in December when I first played through the games, I would've given them like, a 1 or 2 mark. I really didn't care for them, but the animations and the flavour text for them really won me over so much that I actually used Sprigatito as the starter for my Scarlet playthrough. He's never going to displace a lot of my actual favourites among the starters, but Meowscarada and Sprigatito can stand proudly as being one of the few Pokemon that manages to charm me and rise from 'dislike' to 'like'.

 4/6; Floragato is a 2/6. 

#909-911: Fuecoco, Crocalor & Skeledirge

• Types: Fire [Fuecoco, Crocalor], Fire/Ghost [Skeledirge]
• Japanese names: Hogeta, Achigeta, Raudobon
• Categories: Fire Croc [Fuecoco, Crocalor], Singer [Skeledirge]

Okay, now this one is cute. I wasn't very sure about how I feel about Fuecoco when I first saw him in that Nintendo Direct or whatever that showed off the official artworks for the three Paldean starters. I kinda looked at Fuecoco, went at him and went "well, this is different" and went on my day. It kinda reminded me of an apple dinosaur (not very Fire, huh?), and I was a bit baffled on what it was supposed to be until the descriptions tell me that Fuecoco is a 'Fire Croc' Pokemon. Huh! He looks like a very stylized chibi cartoon dinosaur, and... take it from me, he's actually very cute in the game engine, waddling around with that blank, derpy look on his face. That's basically the personality that the designer team gave to Fuecoco -- he's a derp, and his Japanese name even is a pun on hoge, or 'dumbfounded'. 

And it's when I thought a lot about Fuecoco that I realized a lot of my starter predelictions do go for the goofier, more charming goobers like Mudkip and Turtwig and Rowlet. And Fuecoco does get to really shine a lot in those first impressions, those first crucial moments of the game showing us the three starters waddling around. Even the cutscene showing Fuecoco accidentally setting a berry on fire, and then still holding on to the berry until Quaxly dope-slaps him? That's adorable. That's very cute. They really knew what they wanted with Fuecoco, and it's definitely a very well-realized concept. 

The dex notes about how energy is 'always leaking out' because its flame sac is small, forming energy constructs on Fuecoco's head that's those hair strands that I thought were 'apple stalks'. People have pointed out that that might be a reference on how crocodiles release excess body heat from their mouths. Fuecoco is a cute little design, if a bit more baffling than I thought, but what he's all about will become clear as we go to the final form. 

Also, apropos of nothing, Generation IX absolutely ditches the 'starter patterns' that has been prevalent in the franchise since Generation I. I've always found the Water-type 'based on weapons' thing to be very questionable (especially since Feraligatr, Swampert and Primarina don't fit the pattern) but the Grass-types always did have a 'prehistoric' feel to at least the final stage of the evolutionary line, and the Fire-type has been slowly completing the Chinese Zodiac... and while people can bullshit all long that Sprigatito might be based on any number of obscure extinct felines, this crocodile puts the zodiac story to rest. Sorry, pattern-searchers. 

And Crocalor is a bit more... interesting. He's still ostensibly a crocodile, but he still keeps Fuecoco's very round body. There's a lot more colours added to him, though, particularly to Fuecoco's originally fully-white upper face, which starts to really hint into this line being based on calavera -- painted skulls most associated with the Mexican Day of the Dead. 

The colours are pleasant, a nice little extension of Fuecoco's, but most interestingly is that the little fire cracks on Fuecoco's head have evolved into a full-on fire structure that resembles a sombrero... but is actually an egg-shaped fireball on a nest. Take a slow look at it. Get it? It took me a while to understand what's going on. That's an interesting way of putting the very stereotypical sombrero look on a Pokemon in a region based on Spain, while also making it look like a believable part of a Pokemon's biology. It's even speculated to reference a Spanish dish -- the Mona de Pascua, a dish sometimes served with a hard-boiled egg on top. 

But that's not all! Crocalor's bizarre anatomy has caused the valve of its flame sac to be connected to its vocal cords, which causes it to unleash particularly guttural cries as it sprays flames. Unfortunately not represented in-game, because Crocalor's in-game cry isn't particularly more guttural or pleasant than any other Pokemon in the game. 

...and then we get Skeledirge. Now usually when a quadrupedal Pokemon stands up or when a bipedal Pokemon goes on all fours it feels a bit jarring, just like what I pointed out with Sprigatito above. Honestly, I think the only Pokemon that pulled this off relatively well are... Purrloin and Galarian Linoone? But Fuecoco gets progressively more front-heavy as he goes into Crocalor, and I absolutely find it very cool that we finally get a Fire-type starter that isn't just a funny animal-man on fire. 

But yeah. Skeledirge is a very mean-looking crocodile, and I absolutely love the name. The word 'dirge' is already cool as fuck, and the appearance of this guy puts the calavera theme all the way up to eleven without making it a bit too obvious. I love the markings on the white parts of its upper head, and I love the wreath of fire that spews out constantly from the sides of his mouth, bringing to mind Mega Charizard X. All of this would make for a very good design already, and the Fire/Ghost typing helps to bring the Day of the Dead theme to the forefront. There are a lot of other crocodile-related ghost stories in the regions that Paldea is inspired on, but I think the Day of the Dead inspirations are the main ones here for sure. 

But that's only half of the package. No. The egg from Crocalor? It hatches. It hatches into a tiny little round fire bird that the Pokedex identifies as being 'born when the fireball gained a soul'. Excuse me what? That's so cool! That's such a creative thing to do, and it really gives in a lot more of the 'Ghost' vibe for sure. It even ties in to the (mostly exaggerated and now proven to be false) symbiosis between crocodiles and little birds. That alone is worth the price of admission, and, of course, Skeledirge's little bird hops around his snout when he's wandering around doing stuff. 

But that's not all! Skeledirge's signature move, Torch Song, has him stand up on two legs, the bird hops down and transforms into a microphone stand, and then Skeledirge WAILS into it so hard that the little baby bird transforms into a goddamn fire phoenix that divebombs the enemy. Full stop, that's the most creative I think Pokemon has been with its signature moves, which other than maybe a few exceptions have just been very boring 'I summon a giant beam' or 'I hit you while glowing'. This makes Skeledirge's species status as a 'singer Pokemon' have double meaning, since he sings and singes at the same time!

Honestly, I liked Skeledirge enough when he was just a goofy chibi dinosaur that turns into a firebreathing crocodile, but the dual themes of the Dia de los Muertos colours and the litlte firebird friend and the singer thing really does push the envelope up to eleven in a package that, somehow, doesn't feel overdesigned. Yeah, after the previous generation have utterly underwhelmed me with its starters, having one out of the three be something I can gush on feels great!

 6/6.

#912-914: Quaxly, Quaxwell & Quaquaval

• Types: Water [Quaxly, Quaxwell], Water/Fighting [Quaquaval]
• Japanese names: Kuwassu, Werukamo, Wenibaru
• Categories: Duckling [Quaxly], Practicing [Quaxwell], Dancer [Quaquaval]

Unfortunately, as you might've gathered from my Sprigatito review... I started off not minding the Quaxly line to really not caring all too much about it. Now it's not the fault of Quaxly himself! Quaxly is kind of an okay little duck buddy. Very boring in the way that Sprigatito is boring -- he's just a cartoon animal -- but at least Quaxly has the rather charming animation of constantly fussing about its little pompadour, which is apparently held in place by a gel secreted from its feather that's meant to repel water and grime. We even get a bit of a personality with Quaxly, where it's a bit of a fussy duck that overthinks things and tries to keep everything tidy. Very cute!

The poof-head is even something based on the crested duck, a specific breed of duck, and people have pointed out how the blue feet is based on the blue-footed booby. I'm not the most well-read about birds in general, but I can appreciate Quaxly. In fact, up until I saw its evolutions, I was rather certain that I was going to pick Quaxly for my Scarlet playthrough. 

 4/6.

And then it evolves into Quaxwell, and... again, it's another 'furry' Pokemon (or 'feathery'?), and to be fair at least this middle form has a personality. It's based on some sort of dancer, with the colouring patterns on its body resembling a tank top, and the feet is... uh... it's a bit disturbing to think that the white-blue leg is being shoved into the yellow feet like dancing shoes, but it's probably just feather patterns. Quaxly's pompadour has evolved into a giant... oversized... helmet thing with light-blue accents that also act as exaggerated eyebrows. 

The Pokedex entries note that they train their powerful legs in both kicking and dancing, and they like to incorporate movements of other regions into their own dance routines. Not the biggest fan of where this line is going, however, and Quaxwell is probably the most awkward of Quaxly's two evolved forms. 

And Quaquaval is... I really didn't know what I was looking at the first time around. I had such a visceral reaction to this guy when I first saw him and I went 'nope, I don't like it'. I have since mellowed out a little, and I absolutely love that this guy never stops dancing in its idle animations, even when it's moving around and following you around. Also not really seen in this official artwork is that Quaquaval is actually a peacock, our very first peacock, because it can summon multiple light-blue water petals that float, detached from his butt, in a rather impressive fashion. It's kind of like Typhlosion where the design just looks incomplete without that detail that doesn't pop up unless the Pokemon is in battle. Quaquaval even uses those peacock blades, which spin around them in a far more threatening, animesque fashion with its signature move, Aqua Step. 

But Quaquaval is a lot more pleasant of a design than Quaxwell, with the hair properly blossoming into something that looks festive, and the primarily dark-blue feathers on most of his body is also much better looking than the primarily white. I also like how the arms look compared to Quaxwell's, as do the legs, which look like fancy pants. The feet being only on tip-toes and having weird bulbous segments draws specifically from coots, a type of water-fowl who have those legs. 

Oh, and Quaquaval is Water/Fighting, with how its dances allow it to kick with such force that it sends trucks rolling around. The Pokedex entries note how Quaquaval and its pre-evolutions learn dance moves from far-off lands, which means that these guys might have taken inspiration rom capoeira? 

Anyway, I do appreciate the thought put into Quaquaval a lot more now that I've read up on the reasonings behind some of the bizarre choices, but it's still one of my least favourite starter designs. I don't think I'm alone in this, because a recent popularity poll of all the Generation IX Pokemon had poor Quaquaval at somewhere in the 30's, whereas representatives of the other two Paldean starter lines occupy the third and fourth slots. It is kind of unfortunate, because I do feel like they put in a fair amount of effort into this line, but I just can't bring myself to really like it either. 

 2/6.

#915-916: Lechonk & Oinkolonge

• Types: Normal [both]
• Japanese names: Guruton, Pafyuton 
• Categories: Hog [both]

Our first Pokemon is the "regional rodent", though I hesitate to call a pig a rodent. Pigs are pigs! Mammals of the genus Sus! But there isn't actually an early-route Normal-type that fits with the pattern of Rattata, Sentret, Zigzagoon, Bidoof, Patrat, Bunnelby, Yungoos and Skwovet... yeah, I guess Generation IX really wants to break patterns, which they have already been doing anyway with the early bugs not being butterflies since Generation V. 

Which is to say that Lechonk is sure a pig! We've had pig Pokemon before in Tepig and Spoink, and Lechonk is the most normal-looking pig out of all of them. You can't go wrong with a round boy, though, and Lechonk is a very round boy. He's reasonably cute, if unremarkable. All the Pokedex entries note that unlike the muddy, dirty gluttons you'd expect, Lechonk is actually extremely picky with food, having a very keen sense of smell that it uses for foraging and will spurn everything but the finest food... an obvious reference to truffle hogs, which are pigs that are trained to sniff out the super-expensive truffles. 

There's also a note about how its body gives off an herb-like scent that repels Bug-type Pokemon, which I don't think is a pig thing, and it isn't represented in its abilities or moves, so that's just a random little tidbit, I guess! One last thing to note is that Lechonk, other than the obvious ha-ha 'chonk' meme language, actually draws its name from Lechon, a Spanish suckling piglet dish. 

And Lechonk evolves into Oinkologne, which sure is a more realistically-proportioned pig? The male and female Oinkolognes have different appearances, with the male one having a more dull grayish-purple paint scheme and a tail that ends in like a pink club; whereas the female has a more brownish look with a tail that ends in a fork. They've got different under-eyelash things as well. They also have different dex entries, with descriptions of both Oinkolognes emphasizing its ability to emit concentrated floral-themed scents that wafts out from all of its body, and how they can soothe Pokemon around them. The male is described to have a scent that can attract females to it, which is represented with the ability 'Lingering Aroma' that overwrites other Pokemon's abilities. Okay? 

People have pointed out how male Oinkologne is based on the black Iberian Pig, while the female Oinkologne (as well as their droopy ears) is based on the Celtic Pig. The whole point about this is just Nintendo emphasizing that these hogs really, really like cleanliness instead of the common myth and stereotype that pigs are filthy, disgusting animals that roll around in their shit and eat anything... which isn't actually something most pigs do, and it's just an extrapolation of how pigs will roll around in the mud to keep themselves warm. Most pigs, like Oinkologne, are actually as picky as any other mammal like cats and dogs about keeping their living spaces clean. 

 2/6.

#917-918: Tarountula & Spidops

• Types: Bug [both]
• Japanese names: Tamanchura, Wanaida 
• Categories: String Ball [Tarountula], Trap [Spidops]

I fell in love with Tarountula the first moment I saw it, and moments like this is really why I am very glad that I'm not really following up with Pokemon news and pre-release stuff. My playthroughs of Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet felt vastly far more fun when I have genuinely no idea what Pokemon I'm going to meet in the region. And one of our two 'early bugs' is good ol' Tarountula, the first spider Pokemon with the proper number of eight legs! We've had the Joltik, Spinarak and Dewpider lines, but they've all got six legs! That's the number of legs that a plebeian insect has, these are arachnids thank you very much. 

I also do like that since we've done several straight-up spiders over the years, Tarountula wraps around its abdomen entirely in silk, making its abdomen a silk yarn ball like the ones that cats would bat around. This is even reflected in both of its dex entries, which highlight how Tarountula's silk is super-defensive and super-strong, an exaggeration of how real-life spiders are able to produce silk with the tensile strength of steel wires. We also get the information that Tarountula has adapted to be like this to deflect the blades of its natural predator, Scyther!

Love the look of Tarountula, too. The adorable lime-green and the stylized combination of pedipalps and fangs make for a cute face, and I do love that while Tarountula only has two pupils, those white markings on either side of his main eyes seem to represent the multiple sets of eyes that most spiders normally have. I do suspect that the heavy stylization might be due to how they don't want to scare arachnophobes too much? 

Tarountula evolves into the pure-Bug Spidops, and it's such a unique take on a spider monster. There is a lot of things going on on this spider-man, and Spidops seems to be generally an unpopular Pokemon unfortunately, but I can safely say that it's still one of my all-time favourites from this region design-wise. Its very odd-looking face is based on a specific family of spiders, Deinopidae, or the Ogre-Faced Spiders. I am very delighted to instantly recognize what Spidops is based on, because this family is not just known for their large, ogre-like eyes, but also their hunting behaviour, which is the source of their other common name, the Net-Casting Spiders. And... yes, Spidops' behaviour, where it uses its four arms to create nets, is exactly inspired by these Net-Casting Spiders, which will hang on top of their prey, create a net with their four front legs, and then they use this net to capture the unfortunate prey that scuttle below them. Their 'ogre-face' large eyes are to aid in this hunting method, giving them amazing nocturnal vision; and their bodies are very camouflaged to resemble an ugly twig. 

Spidops takes the Net-Casting Spiders' hunting pose and flips it upside-down, standing on two 'legs' formed by its four back legs, while the two pairs of front legs form arms that create giant net-shields and traps not too dissimilar to the visual of those finger string games that is common in Japan. The idea of Spidops is that it's a master trapper, hiding in branches and ceilings as it lays traps around the battlefield with its strings. Now the former part is actually represented amazingly well in-game. Spidops might stand like a human when it's in combat, but when it's following you around, it actually scuttles around like a real spider, and wild Spidops will wrap themselves around tree trunks and their colour does make it a bit surprising to see them when they hop down and charge you. Unfortunately, I would have actually liked it if they did make some overworld Spidops 'traps'. 

There's also a secondary theme of like a camo soldier, with its main body resembling a bulletproof vest, its ogre eyes resembling night-vision goggles and its long spider limbs looking similar to twigs or bamboo as a way to camouflage itself. I do really like that, again, like Tarountula, Spidops actually has six eyes, but only two has pupils while the other two pairs are stuck on the sides of his forehead... and the silhouette does resemble the straps of the night goggles, in a way. The gigantic silk yarn of Tarountula around the abdomen is gone, but Spidops' cylindrical abdomen is still wrapped around with silk 'bandages'. That's neat. 

It's just such a shame that Spidops... isn't that good. I'm not someone who particularly cares all that much about rankings and meta stuff, but I really thought that with all the talk about traps and whatnot that Spidops would be a Bug/Dark, but that honour goes to the next Pokemon we'll be talking about. Its stats are very middling for a fully-evolved Pokemon, and it just doesn't get any good moves. Kind of a shame because it makes it hard to use Spidops even in regular content! Oh well. 

 6/6.

#919-920: Nymble & Lokix

• Types: Bug [Nymble], Bug/Dark [Lokix]
• Japanese names: Mamebatta, Ekusureggu
• Categories: Grasshopper [both]

Our next Bug type is Nymble, which is our very first-ever grasshopper. It's amazing how one of the more common insects that we generally think of in popular culture didn't get a representation until well into the ninth generation, huh? Well, Nymble is an adorable little grasshopper nymph, and... it does look a bit "toyetic", and it's not my favourite bug if we're being honest. But Nymble is really small, and those star-shaped eyes are really adorable. With its colouring and how the legs are folded, many people have suggested the Pygmy Mole Crickets of the family Tridactylidae as the inspiration, and... sure? 

One thing that I didn't quite understand until I saw her attack animations is that Nymble's "wings" aren't exactly wings, but rather the missing third pair of legs, folded up like weird switchblades into a form resembling a regular grasshopper's wings. The dex entries note that Nymble uses this third set of legs to launch itself over 30 feet using the strength of those hidden legs. All the emphasis on the jumping strength really did make me think that Tarountula and Nymble were going to evolve into a Bug/Dark and Bug/Fighting pair respectively...

Except that it is actually Nymble's evolution Lokix that gains the main honour of becoming the franchise's first Bug/Dark Pokemon, finally giving us the 'evil dark insect' that Pokemon has somehow resisted doing over, again, eight generations prior. Very cool design, and I'm surprisingly a huge fan of those angular eyes that really does scream a 'mask', and the orange jagged edges on the limbs and the chainsaw-like 'wings' really do look cool. 

And, of course, as anyone could've guessed, the grasshopper Pokemon turns into a walking Kamen Rider reference. Kamen Rider is super big in Japan, and this being a jet-black bipedal grasshopper with a lot of kicking moves is definitely a huge reference to good ol' Hongo Takeshi and his many, many successors. There's even an almost Kamen Rider Black-esque way that the torso connects to the head, yeah? The artwork showcases Lokix in the signature jumping kick of a Kamen Rider, and even the white markings on its midsection that explodes into an "X" resembles a transformation belt that all Kamen Riders uses. 

Look at that gorgeous artwork in the Pokedex, too, which features Lokix's "Showdown Mode", which is far, far more dynamic than the very static-looking official artwork. The Showdown Mode, unlike the many, many alternate forms that many modern Pokemon have, isn't actually a 'mode' that Lokix enters, but just part of its animations. This Showdown Mode has those shoulder-mounted wings flip around and envelop Lokix's legs, and the chainsaw-like protrusions jut out, and Lokix can "neutralize enemies in short order" with this when she decides to fight all-out... but it "places a huge burden on its body, so it can't stay in this mode for long". A very Tokusatsu-like reference of superpowers, where the final form has a time limit, yeah? 

Which really brings to mind the Bug/Dark typing, too. It's something that's a lot more prevalent in the earlier Riders, and a bit less in modern ones, but most Kamen Riders draw their powers from the same power source of the evil monstrous organizations or demons that they're fighting... but decide to use this dark power for good. That's all well and good in terms of the reference, but in-universe, it does lead to the unfortunate fact that Lokix doesn't really feel particularly 'Dark'. 

But... I really don't care. I like Lokix as much as I did Spidops. It's really a very fun adaptation of another one of Japan's most enduring fictional mascots. I approve of this one. 

 6/6.

#921-923: Pawmi, Pawmo & Pawmot

• Types: Electric [Pawmi], Electric/Fighting [Pawmo, Pamot]
• Japanese names: Pamo, Pamotto, Paumotto
• Categories: Mouse [all]

We go from 'early mammal' to 'early bugs' to the 'Pikachu Clone'... and in this generation, for the first time since Pikachu, the cute Electric-type rodent finally evolves! Pawmi, from the name of its evolutions, is based on a marmot, and judging by the setting of Paldea, specifically the Alpine Marmot, though I really do think this basis is just superficial. Regardless, Pawmi is a reasonably cute (if, at this point, overplayed) electric rodent. I like the orange, it's chubby and is on all fours with chubby legs, and that's neat. 

Unlike many of its fellow Pika-clones, Pawmi's sacs aren't particularly powerful, and he needs to use static electricity by rubbing its cheeks with its forepaws, which contain the actual electricity-discharging organs. Okay. It does use the forepaw-organs in animations, and I guess the cheek-pouches might just be something akin to an organ that's about to become vestigial? 

And then Pawmi evolves into Pawmo by standing up. It does give us a look at the Iron-Man-esque palm organs, but there's so little that changes here. Sure, the hair tuft gets a bitmore elaborate and its fur colour gets a bit lighter, but man, it's really hard to tell the difference, huh? Pawmo is also Electric/Fighting, which the dex notes that it fights by striking enemies with palm thrusts, with which is zaps them with electricity from its paws. 

And... wow, it's lazy, isn't it? Pawmo also has one of the most annoying evolution requirements, which doesn't even make sense. The other two Pokemon that you need to walk around with with them outside of the ball in one go all 'roll around' either their own body or an accessory. Pawmo is just a stupid little bipedal rat. 

And it's kind of a letdown when it becomes Pawmot, which is literally the same thing. With very generic dex entries, the only real difference between Pawmo and Pawmot are the fur details, and I know Poliwhirl/Poliwrath exists, but at least the modern artwork have tried to differentiate their body shapes and their musculature a bit more beyond the eyes. Those two also have the excuse of being created as part of the first generation. I guess Pawmo and Pawmot looking very similar -- that they gave us an evolving Pikaclone and it barely changes -- is the whole point of the joke, but it's one that didn't land for me. 

Anyway, Pawmot learns 'Revival Blessing', one of the two Pokemon in this generation that basically brings the Revive item into a move. The idea, of course, is that Pawmot's palms form defibrillators, but it's such an underwhelming part of an underwhelming design that stretched out over three forms that I really don't have much to say here. The whole line still gets a neutral 2/6 points since they're at least decent to look at, but I am so underwhelmed by this thing. 

 2/6.