Thursday, January 16, 2014
Pokemon #113: Chancey, leading a Poke-feminist revolution?
I haven't updated this blog in a while, but one of my friends (and motivators for this blog) had his birthday yesterday, and requested I do a post on Chancey. So, Happy Birthday! Here we go!
Although Chancey is Pokemon #113 of Generation 1, I chose to do it as my fourth post on this blog. Chancey has gathered some recent attention at conventions as of late in interesting ways, and since "her" introduction.
So this is Chancey:
According to Bulbapedia, Chancey's Japanese romanji spelling looks like this ラッキー and translates to "lucky," which connects to the nomenclature of her name "CHANCE"-y. One of the most notable "Facts" about this Pokemon is that it is only found as a female in the game, meaning to get offspring you'd have to breed it to a Ditto. Yum.
Bulbapedia's description of Chancey interestingly notes "Chansey is a pink, ovoid Pokémon...Chansey lays several nutritious eggs every day, which it carefully carries in its pouch. A kindhearted Pokémon, it will share these eggs with injured people and Pokémon. The eggs become more delicious if Chansey is raised with love and care. Chansey is extremely rare in the wild, and is said to bring good luck and happiness to those who manage to catch it. It is more commonly found in urban settings."
Playing the game, I had no idea Chancey basically raised eggs for consumption only? So then, are Chancey cannibalistic? Are Chancey like sows, where they have to be separated from their eggs so they can hatch into their pre-evolved form, Happiny?
Examining Chancey's role in the Pokemon anime, this Pokemon is commonly seen working with Nurse Joy in the Pokecenters, helping to heal pokemon, which work well with its "delicious egg" ability, and the fact that it constantly is given a "caregiver" or "motherly" overtone in design, similarly to Kangaskhan, but without so much of a "tough" exterior appearance. Even Brock, according to Bulbapedia, had a Happiny that evolved into Chancey. Seriously, Brock, there are easier ways to get closer to Nurse Joy than raise similar Pokemon.
Notably in the manga, Pokémon Adventures, Chansey is seen as a Pokémon under the ownership of Daisy Oak, which previously belonged to her grandfather, the well-known Professor Oak.
Chancey, while appearing calm and friendly, has been known to show agressiveness, particularly to protect others....or, you know, when boxing:
In terms of video games, In Super Smash Bros., "Chansey will sometimes appear from the Silph Co. Building in Saffron City, and can also be released from a Poké Ball in which case she will shoot out eggs." So again, no love for its own young. Come on, Chancey...you're supposed to be motherly...right? In Super Smash Brothers Melee, "When released from a Poké Ball, Chansey will use Softboiled and produce five eggs. Anyone can pick them up and they will either slightly heal the holder or contain items. If attacked, Chansey can be knocked away, stopping egg production. Chansey is also a Pokéfloat. The float will quickly bob up and down from the bottom of the screen four times."
Getting back to Chancey's evolution (and away from its weird nurse/offspring-devourer), in Gold and Silver, once you raise the happiness of Chancey to a degree, meaning you battle with it but don't let it faint, give it potions, etc. it may evolve into an even frillier version of itself, known as Blissey (and appearing more like a Lolita maid than nurse...oh, the naughty cosplay ideas):
The visual rhetoric behind this evolution strikes as interesting. Since Chancey is a female-only Pokemon, some could point out the stereotypical gender roles behind the evolution. In order for this Pokemon to become stronger, it must be pampered and made more beautiful than it already is (one way to make Pokemon more "happy" in the game is to take them to a salon). The suggestion here is that evolution is from healing/nurse to that of vanity. "Chance" becomes "Bliss," but does it mean duty sacrificed for vanity and that makes it appealing? Perhaps that's looking too deep into the Pokemon itself, but still, it's interesting to think about.
Connecting to its visual appearance, there are definitely two main, but different, angles individuals go to when portraying Chancey: One is realistically (which has become an up and coming trend with Pokemon of all types), and with "human" appearances and characteristics.
Realism:
This form of Chancey, as shown by the images below, is terrifying. Chancey's cute appearance is dropped completely or warped to portray the Pokemon as a much more fearsome, and less feminine, creature.
Humanistic:
With it being an "only-female" Pokemon, the fan art that have humanistic qualities is fairly limited....or so it seems. The human Chancey images range from pregnant women to women with chainsaws...oddly. Here are some examples:
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Chancey in relation to fans of the game is how Chancey has been cosplayed. While a character that is seemingly "cosplayable" by all body types, Chancey has become somewhat of an underground example of gender-bending and gender-expanding in both the fan art and cosplay world.
Is Chancey the vessel for a Poke-feminist revolution? Who knows...the evolution of Chancey seems to oppose this, but as this post examines, Chancey symbolizes both a strong and feminine character, and one that is well-known and has made its mark in the Pokemon community. Only time will tell how male characters and cosplayers embrace this Pokemon.
Have a Pokemon you want me to write a post on? Just comment below!
Until next time!
References:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Chansey_(Pokémon)http://www.wikihow.com/Evolve-Chansey
Images from GOOGLE IMAGES
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Final Starter Pokemon: Violent Turtles Using Hydropump
Well, well, well. Finally, I've added a new blog post to finish up the starter three Pokemon. I'm hoping to have more time to work on this blog this year, but more about that at the end of this blog! In the meantime, let's get down to brass tax...or tacks....or [insert random saying here].
I've covered the visual rhetoric behind the first two "starter" Pokemon of the classic Red, Green, and Blue versions of the classic Gameboy/Gameboy Color game, and their evolutions: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venussaur, Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard. Now I finally come to my personal favorite of the three: Squirtle, and its evolutions Wartortle and Blastoise.
#007 Pokemon in the Pokedex is Squirtle, called Zenigame originally in Japanese (Zenigame meaning "Pond Turtle") game. Squirtle is a water-type Pokemon and itself and its evolutions are based off of turtles and tortoises.
Bulbapedia states "Squirtle can spray water from its mouth. At first, it may only be able to spray foam and bubbles, but with time it can learn to spray water jets like Water Gun and Hydro Pump. If it withdraws, it can still spray water out the holes in its shell.
It can also be easily taught Ice-type moves like Ice Beam and Blizzard." While there are no apparent gender differences in this Pokemon, Squirtles do have different colors of shells in later versions of the Gameboy game, such as Black and White.
I have to disagree with this motivational poster. I personally think that bulbasaur would be the easiest pick to start, since it is effective against both Brock's rock/ground and Misty's water pokemon, whereas Charmander would be a more challenging start having weakness against both. Squirtle was more of the middle choice, being super effective against Brock, at par with Misty, and at a disadvantage with Lt. Surge and Erica. But man, when you hit Blaine, what a great choice. ^^
Squirtle is frequently seen in the animated show, more so than its evolutions. Bulbapedia notes "The first real Squirtle appeared in Here Comes the Squirtle Squad. The Squirtle Squad were a gang of rogue Squirtle who were deserted by their Trainers. Ash befriended and captured their leader, while the rest of them became a firefighting group. Squirtle stayed with Ash until The Fire-ring Squad!, when it returned to the Squirtle Squad."
In the firing squad episode, the squirtle wore a pair of sunglasses that later spawned a huge meme-like line of parodies surging through the internet, such as this one, parodying CSI: Miami.
Additionally, since the "Squirtle Squad" are considered a "gang" of Pokemon causing trouble in the town, connections to visual parodies also were released on the Internet, such as this one, a la' BANKSY:
In fact, the three Pokemon featured in this blog have a lot of ties to violence and weaponry, but more of that later. Now back to the animated show references.
"May received her own Squirtle from Professor Oak in The Right Place and the Right Mime. May's Squirtle was very young and timid, until evolving before Staging a Heroes Welcome.
Squirtle was mentioned in the first episode of the anime, Pokémon - I Choose You!, as one of the three starter Pokémon new Trainers in Pallet Town can choose from. Ash dreamed of owning one, and it was his first choice of a starter. However, when he arrived at Oak's lab, he found out it was too late, as another Trainer who started the same day had already taken it. It was shown battling and defeating Samurai's Metapod.
It wasn't until The Ties that Bind that it was revealed that the Trainer who took Squirtle was none other than Gary Oak, Ash's rival. By then, it had already evolved into a Blastoise."
Other instances involved Squirtle. "In Journey to the Starting Line, a set of the three Kanto starter Pokémon in which a boy named Gilbert was supposed to choose from as his starting Pokémon were scared off by Ash's Tauros. Professor Oak, Tracey, Delia, and Gilbert had to split up and find the three missing Pokémon. Squirtle was the second one found. The Tiny Turtle Pokémon was stuck in a tree that was hanging over a cliff. Ash's Bulbasaur managed to catch the Squirtle before it could fall off the cliff.
The main character in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate! special is a Squirtle that claims that he used to be human. He joins Team Go-Getters in their rescue work. While he can't use Water Gun, he is happy to use Bubble because it looks pretty." (Bulbapedia)
Squirtle, having obvious visual similarities to a normal turtle, has been involved in several parodies, crossing over into other pop culture series, such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Wartortle:
At level 16, Squirtle evolves into Wartortle. Bulbapedia adds "Even though Wartortle's ears are depicted lighter than its face in the official Sugimori stock art and most of its game sprites, the official promotional pictures usually have the ears the same color as its face.
Its design appears to be a stylized sea turtle with features of tortoises.
Wartortle's name is a combination of war or warrior, tortoise, and turtle. The kame in Kameil comes from the Japanese word for tortoise/turtle, 亀, and may be a combination of 亀 and テール kame and "tail." It is also a corruption of 噛める kameru, to be able to bite."
Wartortle continues more violent metaphors associated with Squirtle, perhaps because of the "War" prefix in its name. In either case, references such as these (a parody of Captain America) further the suggestive nomenclature:
Other cultural references give Wartortle a "macho" persona or connect the prefix with other references having the same, such as Wario from the Mario Bros. series.
However, while having such as a macho, military association with its name, Wartortle has surprisingly been depicted as feminine by many fanartists. While Squirtle searches showed more connections to pop culture memes, a Google image search for Wartortle for this blog included several images of the Pokemon given a human form.
The reason for this, while not explicit, could be the from the translation of Wartortle's name. In Chinese, Wartortle's translated name is "probably the similar to the Mandarin name. The second character (美) means beauty." (Bulbapedia). The curvy, curly attributes of Wartortle could also add to the feminine appearance and interpretation of the Pokemon when given human features.
While not appearing often in the animated show, its final evolution appears more frequently and without as much feminine personification.
Blastoise:
At Level 36, Wartortle evolves into Blastoise, the cover character on the Pokemon Blue game and personally one of my favorite Pokemon.
"Its design appears to be a mix of a sea turtle and a tortoise, further mixed with aspects of a tank. Blastoise's cannons may have been derived from the functioning tubes found in mussels and some other shellfish, thus its species name.
Blastoise's name is a combination of blast, referring to its cannons, and tortoise. Kamex comes from the Japanese word for tortoise/turtle, 亀 kame, and possibly マックス makkusu, or max, as in maximum. Blastoise's name may also come from the word Blastoid, which are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm with small hickory nut shaped fossils."
I don't know why, but this meme pretty much struck home for me. I loved getting to Blastoise. Probably because he had great attack and defense stats, and learned great movies like Ice Beam and Hydropump. But Blastoise just reeked of power in the game. I remember wanting the Pokemon card of Blastoise so bad, and finally getting it after trading with a friend for a Raichu card of mine.
While Squirtle was sometimes given a feminine humanoid persona, and Wartortle certainly had its fair share of feminine interpretations, as seen above, Blastoise is almost always given a masculine persona, and more importantly, a typical animal depiction that avoids personification almost entirely, as shown in the images below:
I personally never considered how masculine Blastoise was examined as, but the visual interpretations are hard to miss.
Interesting Trivia about Blastoise (Provided by Bulbapedia):
"Blastoise, like Ho-Oh (as of the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver), Dialga, and Palkia, shares the first letter of its name with the game it is the mascot of: Blue.
Blastoise shares the same species name with Kabuto and Kabutops. They are all known as the Shellfish Pokémon.
Blastoise has the highest base Special Defense of all fully evolved starter Pokémon.
In Pokémon Stadium 2, there is a trainer in the eighth battle of Poké Cup Ultra Ball R-2 who has a Blastoise with both Haze and Mirror Coat. However, it is impossible to breed both of these moves on the same Blastoise until Generation III.
Blastoise is the only fully evolved form of a Kanto starter that does not have a secondary type.
Blastoise is the only fully evolved Kanto starter not immune to Toxic Spikes. Venusaur is half Poison-type and Charizard is a half Flying-type."
What I find most interesting about the Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise Pokemon are their ties to weaponry and destruction, especially when compared to their starter counterparts Bulbasaur and Charmander.
Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise are the only of the three starters and their evolutions that have weaponry/machinery attached to them and are associated with acts of crime. This has been transferred outside the anime/game/manga itself as well. In the popular online series "There Will Be Brawl" (a parody of the movie title "There Will Be Blood" and the game Pokemon Brawl), Squirtle is first shown locked away in a jail cell while the other two starters are with their Pokemon trainer. Clearly there is some sense of rebellion, action, and certainly power attached to the Pokemon and its evolutions.
Well, that's all for now! I encourage you to please feel free to help me with the blog! If you have a Pokemon you'd like to visually analyze and write about, please, feel free to email me your blog entry! And I'll gladly put it up here! My email is herefordart5888@hotmail.com.
Until next time, keep playing!
I've covered the visual rhetoric behind the first two "starter" Pokemon of the classic Red, Green, and Blue versions of the classic Gameboy/Gameboy Color game, and their evolutions: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venussaur, Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard. Now I finally come to my personal favorite of the three: Squirtle, and its evolutions Wartortle and Blastoise.
#007 Pokemon in the Pokedex is Squirtle, called Zenigame originally in Japanese (Zenigame meaning "Pond Turtle") game. Squirtle is a water-type Pokemon and itself and its evolutions are based off of turtles and tortoises.
Bulbapedia states "Squirtle can spray water from its mouth. At first, it may only be able to spray foam and bubbles, but with time it can learn to spray water jets like Water Gun and Hydro Pump. If it withdraws, it can still spray water out the holes in its shell.
It can also be easily taught Ice-type moves like Ice Beam and Blizzard." While there are no apparent gender differences in this Pokemon, Squirtles do have different colors of shells in later versions of the Gameboy game, such as Black and White.
I have to disagree with this motivational poster. I personally think that bulbasaur would be the easiest pick to start, since it is effective against both Brock's rock/ground and Misty's water pokemon, whereas Charmander would be a more challenging start having weakness against both. Squirtle was more of the middle choice, being super effective against Brock, at par with Misty, and at a disadvantage with Lt. Surge and Erica. But man, when you hit Blaine, what a great choice. ^^
Squirtle is frequently seen in the animated show, more so than its evolutions. Bulbapedia notes "The first real Squirtle appeared in Here Comes the Squirtle Squad. The Squirtle Squad were a gang of rogue Squirtle who were deserted by their Trainers. Ash befriended and captured their leader, while the rest of them became a firefighting group. Squirtle stayed with Ash until The Fire-ring Squad!, when it returned to the Squirtle Squad."
In the firing squad episode, the squirtle wore a pair of sunglasses that later spawned a huge meme-like line of parodies surging through the internet, such as this one, parodying CSI: Miami.
Additionally, since the "Squirtle Squad" are considered a "gang" of Pokemon causing trouble in the town, connections to visual parodies also were released on the Internet, such as this one, a la' BANKSY:
In fact, the three Pokemon featured in this blog have a lot of ties to violence and weaponry, but more of that later. Now back to the animated show references.
"May received her own Squirtle from Professor Oak in The Right Place and the Right Mime. May's Squirtle was very young and timid, until evolving before Staging a Heroes Welcome.
Squirtle was mentioned in the first episode of the anime, Pokémon - I Choose You!, as one of the three starter Pokémon new Trainers in Pallet Town can choose from. Ash dreamed of owning one, and it was his first choice of a starter. However, when he arrived at Oak's lab, he found out it was too late, as another Trainer who started the same day had already taken it. It was shown battling and defeating Samurai's Metapod.
It wasn't until The Ties that Bind that it was revealed that the Trainer who took Squirtle was none other than Gary Oak, Ash's rival. By then, it had already evolved into a Blastoise."
Other instances involved Squirtle. "In Journey to the Starting Line, a set of the three Kanto starter Pokémon in which a boy named Gilbert was supposed to choose from as his starting Pokémon were scared off by Ash's Tauros. Professor Oak, Tracey, Delia, and Gilbert had to split up and find the three missing Pokémon. Squirtle was the second one found. The Tiny Turtle Pokémon was stuck in a tree that was hanging over a cliff. Ash's Bulbasaur managed to catch the Squirtle before it could fall off the cliff.
The main character in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate! special is a Squirtle that claims that he used to be human. He joins Team Go-Getters in their rescue work. While he can't use Water Gun, he is happy to use Bubble because it looks pretty." (Bulbapedia)
Squirtle, having obvious visual similarities to a normal turtle, has been involved in several parodies, crossing over into other pop culture series, such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Wartortle:
At level 16, Squirtle evolves into Wartortle. Bulbapedia adds "Even though Wartortle's ears are depicted lighter than its face in the official Sugimori stock art and most of its game sprites, the official promotional pictures usually have the ears the same color as its face.
Its design appears to be a stylized sea turtle with features of tortoises.
Wartortle's name is a combination of war or warrior, tortoise, and turtle. The kame in Kameil comes from the Japanese word for tortoise/turtle, 亀, and may be a combination of 亀 and テール kame and "tail." It is also a corruption of 噛める kameru, to be able to bite."
Wartortle continues more violent metaphors associated with Squirtle, perhaps because of the "War" prefix in its name. In either case, references such as these (a parody of Captain America) further the suggestive nomenclature:
Other cultural references give Wartortle a "macho" persona or connect the prefix with other references having the same, such as Wario from the Mario Bros. series.
However, while having such as a macho, military association with its name, Wartortle has surprisingly been depicted as feminine by many fanartists. While Squirtle searches showed more connections to pop culture memes, a Google image search for Wartortle for this blog included several images of the Pokemon given a human form.
The reason for this, while not explicit, could be the from the translation of Wartortle's name. In Chinese, Wartortle's translated name is "probably the similar to the Mandarin name. The second character (美) means beauty." (Bulbapedia). The curvy, curly attributes of Wartortle could also add to the feminine appearance and interpretation of the Pokemon when given human features.
While not appearing often in the animated show, its final evolution appears more frequently and without as much feminine personification.
Blastoise:
At Level 36, Wartortle evolves into Blastoise, the cover character on the Pokemon Blue game and personally one of my favorite Pokemon.
"Its design appears to be a mix of a sea turtle and a tortoise, further mixed with aspects of a tank. Blastoise's cannons may have been derived from the functioning tubes found in mussels and some other shellfish, thus its species name.
Blastoise's name is a combination of blast, referring to its cannons, and tortoise. Kamex comes from the Japanese word for tortoise/turtle, 亀 kame, and possibly マックス makkusu, or max, as in maximum. Blastoise's name may also come from the word Blastoid, which are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm with small hickory nut shaped fossils."
I don't know why, but this meme pretty much struck home for me. I loved getting to Blastoise. Probably because he had great attack and defense stats, and learned great movies like Ice Beam and Hydropump. But Blastoise just reeked of power in the game. I remember wanting the Pokemon card of Blastoise so bad, and finally getting it after trading with a friend for a Raichu card of mine.
While Squirtle was sometimes given a feminine humanoid persona, and Wartortle certainly had its fair share of feminine interpretations, as seen above, Blastoise is almost always given a masculine persona, and more importantly, a typical animal depiction that avoids personification almost entirely, as shown in the images below:
I personally never considered how masculine Blastoise was examined as, but the visual interpretations are hard to miss.
Interesting Trivia about Blastoise (Provided by Bulbapedia):
"Blastoise, like Ho-Oh (as of the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver), Dialga, and Palkia, shares the first letter of its name with the game it is the mascot of: Blue.
Blastoise shares the same species name with Kabuto and Kabutops. They are all known as the Shellfish Pokémon.
Blastoise has the highest base Special Defense of all fully evolved starter Pokémon.
In Pokémon Stadium 2, there is a trainer in the eighth battle of Poké Cup Ultra Ball R-2 who has a Blastoise with both Haze and Mirror Coat. However, it is impossible to breed both of these moves on the same Blastoise until Generation III.
Blastoise is the only fully evolved form of a Kanto starter that does not have a secondary type.
Blastoise is the only fully evolved Kanto starter not immune to Toxic Spikes. Venusaur is half Poison-type and Charizard is a half Flying-type."
What I find most interesting about the Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise Pokemon are their ties to weaponry and destruction, especially when compared to their starter counterparts Bulbasaur and Charmander.
Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise are the only of the three starters and their evolutions that have weaponry/machinery attached to them and are associated with acts of crime. This has been transferred outside the anime/game/manga itself as well. In the popular online series "There Will Be Brawl" (a parody of the movie title "There Will Be Blood" and the game Pokemon Brawl), Squirtle is first shown locked away in a jail cell while the other two starters are with their Pokemon trainer. Clearly there is some sense of rebellion, action, and certainly power attached to the Pokemon and its evolutions.
Well, that's all for now! I encourage you to please feel free to help me with the blog! If you have a Pokemon you'd like to visually analyze and write about, please, feel free to email me your blog entry! And I'll gladly put it up here! My email is herefordart5888@hotmail.com.
Until next time, keep playing!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard: Kid Tested, Mother Approved...Maybe?
Well, it's been....a while. I'm back though! And with a new post about the second set of starter Pokemon: Charmander and its evolutions Charmeleon and Charizard!
Okay, let's go over the basics for this Pokemon trio, starting with Charmander:
"Charmander, known as Hitokage (ヒトカゲ?) in Japan, created by Ken Sugimori, first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. The end of a Charmander's tail is alight with a flame, and the flame's size reflects both the physical health and the emotions of the individual" (Wikipedia), as constantly seen in the anime. "Charmander is a starter Pokémon the player can choose from at the beginning of Pokémon Red and Blue, and their remakes, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. In the anime, Ash acquires a Charmander early in the series, and it became one of Ash's most used Pokémon. In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Blue receives a Charmander from his grandfather Professor Oak. Since it appeared in the Pokémon series, Charmander has received generally positive reception" (Wikipedia).
Charmanders name is derived from "Char" relating to it being a fire Pokemon, and the "-Mander" coming from Salamander, the lizard whom Ken Sugimori based its design off of.
"In the anime, Ash acquires a Charmander early in the series. Ash's Charmander originally belonged to a trainer named Damien, who believed it was weak, and cruelly abandoned it, telling it to stay in one spot until he "returned". The Pokémon was very loyal to its trainer, and risked its life sitting in the rain, waiting for a trainer who'd never come back to it. Upon seeing Damien's true colors, Charmander joined Ash (Takegami). It was immediately one of Ash's most used Pokémon. Charmander evolved into Charmeleon during a battle against an army of Exeggutor, and his personality changed completely, becoming a disobedient Pokémon and fighting only when and how he pleased" (Sonoda). But we'll talk about Charmeleon and Charizard later.
The following link is to a video that starts out showing the anime scene where Damien confronts Charmander about coming back into the abusive relationship with him, only the video's uploader twists the ending just a bit. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvLaXVuPUU
Charmander's character has had extremely positive reception since it was first introduced amongst multiple audiences. I have to admit; playing Pokemon Snap, one of the most fun times I had was photographing Charmander and getting to progressively evolve into Charizard. Out of all the starter Pokemon, Charmander seemed the only one you could do this with in the course of a level, whereas you could not with Bulbasaur or Squirtle. Perhaps this was due to Charmander's growing popularity...perhaps not.
Remember this board game?
When first forcing---I mean, Playing, with my family, My mother instantly loved Charmander. At that moment, I questioned whether I truly liked the small fire Pokemon, or if he like Pikachu was a tool to lure in unsuspecting audiences who otherwise would not turn a head toward these japanese pocket monsters.
The "disgustingly cute" Pokemon, as one author described it, claimed a spot as one of the most popular halloween costumes since 1999. The halloween costume concept has transferred across many age demographics, and even into that of cosplay, where people dress up in costume of their favorite character from a television show or book, more so than Charmeleon or Charizard. The reasons for this could be due to Charmander's "cute" factor, or the simplicity of the costume, especially compared to its evolved form Charizard.
The connection of Charmander to that of a lizard has sparked some sexual connotations, as seen below. Apparently, some people can't get their minds out of the gutter on this one:
And the small salamander Pokemon hasn't gone without further controversy; despite its name meaning literally "fire salamander," some thought that charmander meant "life without God" causing negative speculation around the Pokemon. Author Mark Jacobson commented it seemed odd that questioning how a "baby" Pokémon can grow into a "two-hundred-pound monster whose breath can melt boulders'" (Jaconbson). Of course, nevermind the fact, Jacobson, that there are giant pokemon that look like coconut trees, or the pokemon that are shapeshifting purple blobs. No no, those make perfect sense. *facepalm*
I honestly didn't think Charmander was a safe bet to start out Pokemon Red or Blue (or LeafGree and FireRed) with, mainly because Fire is the most disadvantaged at the start of the game. Your first two opponents are Rock and Water trainers, which Fire is pretty "sucky", to put it bluntly, against. Of course, if you can survive past those two, once you get to the Gym Leader Erica and her Grass-types, you'll be smooth sailing...and fire pokemon are a bit rare, so Charmander's not a bad pick necessarily; but for me wanting to start off strong, I wasn't a fan.
At level 16, Charmander hits a stage of Pokemon puberty more so than any other pokemon arguably in the anime/franchise, becoming Charmeleon.
The name obviously connected to Chameleon, Charmeleon is physically and behaviorally different than its previoius evolutionary form. No longer was it the adorable, giant-eyed Charmander that drew "awwwws" from those trying to understand what the Hell Pokemon actually was, but instead was in its "middle" stage; some would consider hte ugliest of the three. Watching the anime, it was like looking at a cute child go through adolescence and basically disown its parent aka Ash Ketchum, its trainer.This was one aspect of Pokemon's plotline that I never understood. Ash and his friends saved Charmander from an abusive relationship and showed it love and affection...and in return, Charmeleon does this:
Charmander isn't a frequently delved into character in the anime or Manga, having small appearances. Clearly, the emphasis leads up to its pre and post-evolutionary forms. Despite Charmeleon's 180 flip in attitude, it was still no match for the evolutionary leap in both power and utter frustration (at least in the anime) that would occur with its final evolutionary form, Charizard.
This was a case of the anime and video games completely confusing each other in my opinion. On one hand, you have Charizard, whom Charmeleon evolves into at Level 36 in the video games. Not only does Charizard become BOTH flying and fire types, but its a pretty powerful pokemon to have in the game. It's the first in the National Pokedex to gain a type upon evolution, and perhaps the only starter pokemon to carry dual types. Many people stated that Charizard showed too rapid an evolutionary jump from a tiny cute lizard to a firebreathing, flying fire dragon...but again, these authors clearly need to keep in mind this is a fantastical franchise....granted, Bulbasaur could be argued as not differing much in its evolutionary appearance, but what about squirtle? Geez, look at MAGIKARP. Seriously, when we get to THAT Pokemon entry, that'll be a fun one. But back to Charizard.
If the video game made Charizard look impressive and a powerful ally, the anime made Charizard look completely the opposite, then make you feel peeved at Ash when this feeling was reversed.
According to Bulbapedia, "From the time of its becoming Charmeleon to the Orange Islands episode Charizard Chills, Charizard refused to obey Ash. After Charizard Chills, however, it became one of Ash's strongest Pokémon, perhaps even stronger than Pikachu. Ash left Charizard in the Charicific Valley with Liza in Charizard's Burning Ambition. It has returned to visit and battle for him on several occasions since then." We all thought that after Pokemon puberty, Charizard would be the mature, badass adult pokemon who would fight alongside Ash....this is the image I remember as a kid associating with Charizard:
Lazy ass Charizard with so much potential, yet wants to sit around and mope. I was so frustrated with this fire lizard as a kid. Of course, as the Bulbapedia article states, eventually Charizard comes around, and fights alongside Ash as potentially his best Pokemon. But then what? Ash gives him away. Wait...what? Really, Ash? Your most powerful Pokemon? I seriously think Ash is either a masochist who likes pain sometimes, or he's relying on the "Power of friendship"...and it just makes me want to punch him.
Either way, that's Charmander and its evolutionary forms in a nutshell. This starter pokemon basically represents the cycle all of us take in our lives: Child to whiny teenager to lazy adult who suddenly becomes responsible and then is handed off to another trainer, visiting every other season. Well...maybe that's not the best metaphor to represent for us. Thanks, Charmander. For being cute, helping our parents like Pokemon, and giving men everywhere another creepy sexual ennuendo for their genitals.
Until next time!
Cheers!
References:
Staff. "2. 一新されたポケモンの世界" (in Japanese). Nintendo.com. Nintendo. p. 2. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/interview/irbj/vol1/index2.html. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
Stuart Bishop (2003-05-30). "Game Freak on Pokémon!". CVG. Archived from the original on 2008-02-08. http://www.webcitation.org/5VSJaR6xT. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
Chua-Euan, Howard (November 22, 1999). "PokéMania". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/99/1122/cover2.html. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
"Charmander – The Stray Pokémon". Junki Takegami (writer). Pokémon. Various. September 22, 1998. No. 11, season Indigo League.
"The March of the Exeggutor Squad". Hideki Sonoda (writer). Pokémon. Various. October 30, 1998. No. 43, season Indigo League.
"Teenage hipster in the modern world ... - Google Books". Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=iwzTVUMl6i4C. Retrieved 2010-10-01
Okay, let's go over the basics for this Pokemon trio, starting with Charmander:
"Charmander, known as Hitokage (ヒトカゲ?) in Japan, created by Ken Sugimori, first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. The end of a Charmander's tail is alight with a flame, and the flame's size reflects both the physical health and the emotions of the individual" (Wikipedia), as constantly seen in the anime. "Charmander is a starter Pokémon the player can choose from at the beginning of Pokémon Red and Blue, and their remakes, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. In the anime, Ash acquires a Charmander early in the series, and it became one of Ash's most used Pokémon. In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Blue receives a Charmander from his grandfather Professor Oak. Since it appeared in the Pokémon series, Charmander has received generally positive reception" (Wikipedia).
Charmanders name is derived from "Char" relating to it being a fire Pokemon, and the "-Mander" coming from Salamander, the lizard whom Ken Sugimori based its design off of.
"In the anime, Ash acquires a Charmander early in the series. Ash's Charmander originally belonged to a trainer named Damien, who believed it was weak, and cruelly abandoned it, telling it to stay in one spot until he "returned". The Pokémon was very loyal to its trainer, and risked its life sitting in the rain, waiting for a trainer who'd never come back to it. Upon seeing Damien's true colors, Charmander joined Ash (Takegami). It was immediately one of Ash's most used Pokémon. Charmander evolved into Charmeleon during a battle against an army of Exeggutor, and his personality changed completely, becoming a disobedient Pokémon and fighting only when and how he pleased" (Sonoda). But we'll talk about Charmeleon and Charizard later.
The following link is to a video that starts out showing the anime scene where Damien confronts Charmander about coming back into the abusive relationship with him, only the video's uploader twists the ending just a bit. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuvLaXVuPUU
Charmander's character has had extremely positive reception since it was first introduced amongst multiple audiences. I have to admit; playing Pokemon Snap, one of the most fun times I had was photographing Charmander and getting to progressively evolve into Charizard. Out of all the starter Pokemon, Charmander seemed the only one you could do this with in the course of a level, whereas you could not with Bulbasaur or Squirtle. Perhaps this was due to Charmander's growing popularity...perhaps not.
Remember this board game?
When first forcing---I mean, Playing, with my family, My mother instantly loved Charmander. At that moment, I questioned whether I truly liked the small fire Pokemon, or if he like Pikachu was a tool to lure in unsuspecting audiences who otherwise would not turn a head toward these japanese pocket monsters.
The "disgustingly cute" Pokemon, as one author described it, claimed a spot as one of the most popular halloween costumes since 1999. The halloween costume concept has transferred across many age demographics, and even into that of cosplay, where people dress up in costume of their favorite character from a television show or book, more so than Charmeleon or Charizard. The reasons for this could be due to Charmander's "cute" factor, or the simplicity of the costume, especially compared to its evolved form Charizard.
The connection of Charmander to that of a lizard has sparked some sexual connotations, as seen below. Apparently, some people can't get their minds out of the gutter on this one:
And the small salamander Pokemon hasn't gone without further controversy; despite its name meaning literally "fire salamander," some thought that charmander meant "life without God" causing negative speculation around the Pokemon. Author Mark Jacobson commented it seemed odd that questioning how a "baby" Pokémon can grow into a "two-hundred-pound monster whose breath can melt boulders'" (Jaconbson). Of course, nevermind the fact, Jacobson, that there are giant pokemon that look like coconut trees, or the pokemon that are shapeshifting purple blobs. No no, those make perfect sense. *facepalm*
I honestly didn't think Charmander was a safe bet to start out Pokemon Red or Blue (or LeafGree and FireRed) with, mainly because Fire is the most disadvantaged at the start of the game. Your first two opponents are Rock and Water trainers, which Fire is pretty "sucky", to put it bluntly, against. Of course, if you can survive past those two, once you get to the Gym Leader Erica and her Grass-types, you'll be smooth sailing...and fire pokemon are a bit rare, so Charmander's not a bad pick necessarily; but for me wanting to start off strong, I wasn't a fan.
At level 16, Charmander hits a stage of Pokemon puberty more so than any other pokemon arguably in the anime/franchise, becoming Charmeleon.
The name obviously connected to Chameleon, Charmeleon is physically and behaviorally different than its previoius evolutionary form. No longer was it the adorable, giant-eyed Charmander that drew "awwwws" from those trying to understand what the Hell Pokemon actually was, but instead was in its "middle" stage; some would consider hte ugliest of the three. Watching the anime, it was like looking at a cute child go through adolescence and basically disown its parent aka Ash Ketchum, its trainer.This was one aspect of Pokemon's plotline that I never understood. Ash and his friends saved Charmander from an abusive relationship and showed it love and affection...and in return, Charmeleon does this:
Charmander isn't a frequently delved into character in the anime or Manga, having small appearances. Clearly, the emphasis leads up to its pre and post-evolutionary forms. Despite Charmeleon's 180 flip in attitude, it was still no match for the evolutionary leap in both power and utter frustration (at least in the anime) that would occur with its final evolutionary form, Charizard.
This was a case of the anime and video games completely confusing each other in my opinion. On one hand, you have Charizard, whom Charmeleon evolves into at Level 36 in the video games. Not only does Charizard become BOTH flying and fire types, but its a pretty powerful pokemon to have in the game. It's the first in the National Pokedex to gain a type upon evolution, and perhaps the only starter pokemon to carry dual types. Many people stated that Charizard showed too rapid an evolutionary jump from a tiny cute lizard to a firebreathing, flying fire dragon...but again, these authors clearly need to keep in mind this is a fantastical franchise....granted, Bulbasaur could be argued as not differing much in its evolutionary appearance, but what about squirtle? Geez, look at MAGIKARP. Seriously, when we get to THAT Pokemon entry, that'll be a fun one. But back to Charizard.
If the video game made Charizard look impressive and a powerful ally, the anime made Charizard look completely the opposite, then make you feel peeved at Ash when this feeling was reversed.
According to Bulbapedia, "From the time of its becoming Charmeleon to the Orange Islands episode Charizard Chills, Charizard refused to obey Ash. After Charizard Chills, however, it became one of Ash's strongest Pokémon, perhaps even stronger than Pikachu. Ash left Charizard in the Charicific Valley with Liza in Charizard's Burning Ambition. It has returned to visit and battle for him on several occasions since then." We all thought that after Pokemon puberty, Charizard would be the mature, badass adult pokemon who would fight alongside Ash....this is the image I remember as a kid associating with Charizard:
Lazy ass Charizard with so much potential, yet wants to sit around and mope. I was so frustrated with this fire lizard as a kid. Of course, as the Bulbapedia article states, eventually Charizard comes around, and fights alongside Ash as potentially his best Pokemon. But then what? Ash gives him away. Wait...what? Really, Ash? Your most powerful Pokemon? I seriously think Ash is either a masochist who likes pain sometimes, or he's relying on the "Power of friendship"...and it just makes me want to punch him.
Either way, that's Charmander and its evolutionary forms in a nutshell. This starter pokemon basically represents the cycle all of us take in our lives: Child to whiny teenager to lazy adult who suddenly becomes responsible and then is handed off to another trainer, visiting every other season. Well...maybe that's not the best metaphor to represent for us. Thanks, Charmander. For being cute, helping our parents like Pokemon, and giving men everywhere another creepy sexual ennuendo for their genitals.
Until next time!
Cheers!
References:
Staff. "2. 一新されたポケモンの世界" (in Japanese). Nintendo.com. Nintendo. p. 2. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/interview/irbj/vol1/index2.html. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
Stuart Bishop (2003-05-30). "Game Freak on Pokémon!". CVG. Archived from the original on 2008-02-08. http://www.webcitation.org/5VSJaR6xT. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
Chua-Euan, Howard (November 22, 1999). "PokéMania". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/99/1122/cover2.html. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
"Charmander – The Stray Pokémon". Junki Takegami (writer). Pokémon. Various. September 22, 1998. No. 11, season Indigo League.
"The March of the Exeggutor Squad". Hideki Sonoda (writer). Pokémon. Various. October 30, 1998. No. 43, season Indigo League.
"Teenage hipster in the modern world ... - Google Books". Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=iwzTVUMl6i4C. Retrieved 2010-10-01
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