If you want a good reason
why I still insist that Pokémon is superior to Digimon even though the former
has flat out nicked ideas (Megas, say) from the latter and the latter has a way
better anime then I have one for you right here and it’s completely on-topic:
when Digimon go as simple as Solosis it’s to create their Fresh Digimon, which
are primarily little more than extremely simple little blobs with ears or a
tail (or sometimes both) and are rarely close to creative or smart, they’re
just as simple a design as you can get. When Pokémon go as simple to create a
‘mon that’s just a circle with a face it's a little something else; it’s an egg cell
in the start of an evolutionary line that’s based on cellular mitosis and
embryosis, like Voltorb before it, Solosis proves that even when
they just draw a circle and put some eyes on it, Game Freak can’t help but be clever.
It’s a huge step up form a smiley with rabbit ears and a step up that is on
display throughout most of Pokémon’s ‘mons when compared to Digimon’s 'mons.
Away from pointless fandom
rivalry (and again I do like Digimon, Digimon
Tamers is legit one of my favourite anime and Digimon Adventure tri. has been gorgeous) this line is a good line,
an entire line of ‘mons based on cellular mitosis, an entire line of strange foetus-like
creatures surrounded in protective matter that grow additional brains so they
ultimately look like floating bunny fruits in Jell-O AND split cells? That’s
just neat and this was Generation V’s equivalent line for Abra! (funnily enough
Uri Geller didn’t sue over these). I wish all of the eqvuivalentmons were like
this, clearly standing in for an older line but also clearly doing their own
thing.
Quick observation; the name
‘Reunclius’ (for the third stage, the awesome aforementioned bunny trifle fruit
cell) really doesn’t feel like it goes with the names ‘Solosis’ and ‘Duosion’,
which both really do feel like they go together. As I’ve said I’m not marking
down ‘mons based on their English names because they’re tacked on later, rarely
a factor in their design and of course only relevant in English speaking
countries but it’s just something I’ve always thought and what better time to
get it off my chest than now?
Dear Game Freak, no, dear Japan,
boob coverings are not that funny! Get laid for fuck’s sake, you seem like a
bunch of 12-year-olds sniggering in the bogs! Bras, bikinis, whatever, they’re
mildly tittersome when worn on heads but they are not the comedy gold you seem to think they are
and they’re certainly not a joke that’s worth telling twice on two different
Pokémon. We already had THAT FUCKING SEASHELL BIKINI on Gorebyss, that was
enough, but no, Japan thinks tit support is hilarious so we get that
unnecessary and awkward feather brassiere on Swanna. I think I find it slightly
less offensive than Gorbyss though, they’re a lot less incongruous - feathers
on a feathered animal rather than two seashells stuck onto an eel, THAT FUCKING
SEASHELL BIKINI can only be a gag, Swanna’s could possibly grow like that. I
like the head shape though; they could have just gone simple and smooth but
instead gave Swanna a unique look.
Ducklett’s just fine, I do
think that his ‘feather nappy’ would have been better in white:
Not to make it look more
like a nappy, just cos I think it looks nicer.
SQUEEEE! It’s here! Another
line that, upon seeing it I loved it immediately and was shocked and appalled
that most of the fandom had different opinions to me. It all just made so much
sense for an Ice Type ‘mon – a little tub of ice-cream evolves into an
ice-cream cone and then into a double cone, it’s just so…sensible, built on and
working from previous things like Magnemite and Magneton, Exeggcute and
Exeggutor and even Oddish.
And what an execution of
the idea, making the ‘cones’ be ‘icicles’ is just genius but that’s not what I
mean, and I mean they’re super-adorable but that’s not what I mean either, what
I mean is that no matter how Poketubers want to simplify things to make their
point these three AREN’T just ice cream cones with faces on them, like say Klink,
these aren’t inanimate objects with faces drawn on them but clearly ice
creatures whose anatomical features approximate ice-cream tubs and cones –
including the genius icicle cones. I suppose the flake could be considered a
little less so but Bogleech found at least two examples of real-world anatomy with
similar concepts (cephalopod siphon or defensive gland) so I’m counting it. I
was pleased with these then and I’m so pleased with them now.
Oh, and as I just took a
pop at it, yes Vanillish DOES look like it has a bikini on, but comparing it to
Vanilluxe (which doesn’t despite being pretty much just two Vanillish stuck
together) this doesn’t seem to be intentional like it is with Swanna and
Gorebyss, but just a pattern that ended up a little unfortunately placed.
Formes! Bloody formes!
Because of bloody formes this isn’t a review of two Pokémon but eight! Deerling
and Sawsbuck both have four formes each that change with the newly introduced
seasons mechanic, Gen 5 would have seasons and some areas would change
depending on what season it was, as would Deerling and Sawsbuck. Vanillite and
Trubbish are not Gimmick Pokémon! THESE are Gimmick Pokémon! and just like all
the Gimmick Pokémon that are used to show off a new game mechanic I’m
completely ok with them! The Formes are nout but aesthetic changes (these stay
Normal/Grass) which do make it all for its own sake but at least they don’t
require me to think any more than any other Pokémon.
It also helps that 3 of the
four Sawsbuck formes look gorgeous, they look so nice that they almost make me
forget that Pokémon have done this life-cycle of a plant thing god knows how
many times already. Still they’ve never done it with formes I guess and taken in
isolation the concept is completely sensible – the life-cycle of a tree in the
form of horns – and it’s done really well, ever noticed that Sawsbuck’s chest
hair depletes during it’s Spring forme so that it’s cooler in summer, then it
comes back in it’s Autumn form so it’s warmer and both of these things make it
look like the extra fur it has for it’s Winter forme is lessening then
re-growing? Being a miserable git and yet paradoxically a completely Christmas
fanatic I like the Winter forme best, it just looks so Christmassy and pretty,
probably because it’s horns look like an actual type of Christmas decoration? I
imagine that when it walks it naturally makes the opening from Sleigh Ride.
The one I don’t like that
much is the Spring Forme, I get it, but it’s horns just look a little laughable
with just a few flowers dotted over it, the other two I think are perfectly
fine, both of those antlers look so niiiiice.
Oh, well Deerling just
changes colour, huh, I could have sworn its head flower changed too. Nope. Well
I feel bad for that shouting now. Well…um… well all four colours make complete
sense and match up nicely with Sawsbuck’s forms, I think I like Winter forme
the least this time though, as while again brown makes complete sense (the
colour of bare branches and dead plants) it does make Deerling just look like a
regular cartoon deer someone put a flower on. Spring forme and Autumn forme
just look really edible and Summer forme just looks a lot like Cassia from
Sonic:
HOWEVER, unlike Snively,
who debuted long before Pokémon Black & White, Cassia and Clove debuted a
good while afterwards (they were created for the rebooted Archie comic), they
were created by Aleah Baker and while animal + colour is Sonic’s thang and it could
be a coincidence…nah mate, come on Aleah, admit it, there’s no shame in it,
ripping off Pokémon is basically an industry and it’s not like it makes Cassia
any less UTTERLY AWESOME.
I think Emogla’s my favourite Pikaclone, do you want to know why? It’s not because Emoglas are little shits to fight, fast little fuckers that have the paralysing Static ability (so you’re paralysed if you used a physical attack on it), that aren’t weak to Electric Type (because they ARE part Electric Type, Electric/Flying to be precise) my go-to for Flying Types and a type I always have on my team and (Gym Leader) Elesa has TWO of them - it’s because they’re so cute and fly in a way that always looks like they’re about to hug you. Hugs are a great way to get ‘round me. It does nothing wrong design-wise and gives us a nice twist on Pikachu – Flyachu – and if you use Elesa’s Volt Switch tactic it can be pretty handy despite its weakish stats but it’s mostly the cuteness and hugging, no, really.
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