Voltorb exists also to fill the rpg trope of the mimic, since items or "treasure chests" look like pokeballs in the games. I always thought this was genius along with the positive/negative charge tidbit.
True. Sure it seems uncreative now but it was a novelty when it was created. And sure Electrode is just an upsides down pokeball with a face. But that face is very expressive. Might be one of the only Pokémon that even the new 3D models couldn't make lifeless.
Voltorb is supposed to also are an interpretation of Mimics which are Monsters that disguise themselves as treasure chests to trick people into opening them and then being surprised that it’s not a chest.
Speaking of, fun Pokémon fact: Amoonguss is described as using its PokéBall appearance to fool its prey. You are one of those that are fooled (on that route north of Opelucid). Amoonguss eats people, and it's canon.
I really dislike the train of thought that "object" Pokémon are lazy, and I even dare to say that said notion is wrong think about it, if you were tasked to design a creature your first instinct would most likely be taking an animal for its base, choosing to make an object into a creature would be going deliberately against those initial thoughts. And as you pointed out in the video, every "object" Pokémon is contextualised in-universe, so that's another part where you can't take a shortcut, specially since last I checked keyrings don't have biology to take as a base. anyways I actually like Voltorb, Aromatisse, Trubish, Vanillite, Jynx, Klefki and their respective evolutionary lines. Jynx specifically is unirocally among my top 6 gen 1 Pokémon designs, I've loved Aromatisse ever since I saw someone compare it to a Jim Henson creature design and I think Vanilluxe looks very cute EDIT: I should probably explain why I like Jynx I just realized. I like her because she is big, short and has a simple face, traits sadly not very common in female designs, at least not when I was growing up. Not that I share any physical attributes with Jynx or anything but I just like that she is different. And as much as I like her I won't argue for a second that her original design wasn't a good decision at all.
I'm with you on the Timburr line, first time I ever saw them was in a romhack and I thought they were some awful fakemon someone made. My day was ruined when I learned they were real.
I unironically love Garbador and Vanilluxe. They're a fucking heap of garbage and a giant double ice cream cone. You can't not love that shit dude. I just like the "inanimate object Pokemon" in general I guess. Klefki, however, is an exception. It has the "Prankster" ability, which is an absolutely infuriating ability to attempt to deal with when playing the game competitively (or at least it was back in gen 6).
I used to really hate the elemental monkeys until I learned how deep the reference goes, and got a lot more respect for them because of it. If you are interested: You mentioned them referencing the 3 wise monkeys, with pansage as speak no evil, (with his open mouth), pansear as hear no evil (with his hand up to his ear like he's trying to listen), and panpour as see no evil (with her eyes closed) However when they "get older" and evolve, they also bend the wise monkey rules by also being associated with different delinquent youth culture. Simisage is a Bosozoku, a Japanese bike gang famous for wearing baggy pants and their pompadours. They can't speak evil because their bikes are too noisy to talk over Simisear is a yankii, a gang characterized by their short permed hair and shaved eyebrows. Famous for their foul, loud mouths, they can't hear evil over their own shouting Simipour is less gang related and more a reference to gal culture, which involves general vanity among other thinga. She still has her eyes closed, so she can't see evil, but seeing HER might be... They still are ugly, but the reference is really good with how much went into it
Wow, I did not know any of this. So then they could be chalked up to being kinda lost in translation to western audiences. I love learning the lore behind these but I still don’t like how they look. The colors are too muted or something and they’re just strangely shaped
@@Paraspectre definitely lost in translation, which is ironic for the region based on the US. I really do wish they made these guys more appealing. They are sooooo hard to look at. They kinda feel like that awkward middle stage for a pokemon, where they aren't finished.
@@Paraspectre During Gen 5, the pokemon magazine organized a poll in Japan to class all the pokemons existing accoding to the public. The three elemental monkeys were very low with Simisear last, apparently japanese didn't liked or get that reference ^^'
I really doesn't help that the subculture Simisage and Simisear were already pretty very dated when black and white released, heck Josuke Higashikata was refered to as dated by Hirohiko Araki's Editor in 1992.
I think people’s problem with Aromatisse isn’t it’s Can-can dancer influence but more that fans @ the time of X&Y’s release were excited to see Spritzee take inspiration from Plague doctors and were disappointed by the evolution straying away from a version they imagined (dark, grime, tall and lanky ectect ). Plus the opinion that making a Pokemon based off Can-can dancing, which is a really tame dance all things considered, is “awkward” or “provocative” is pretty funny given that Lopunny exists- A Pokemon purely based off of Playboy bunnies and the girl’s bunny outfits. But the fandom loves that one 😑
Living object Pokemon don't bug me much bc so much of Japanese folklore is household objects gaining sentience. Pokemon is a Japanese game produced in Japan.
Unironically big fan of simipour and simisage here. Love monkeys and I think Simipour looks super chill and simisage looks like a chill biker. But not even I like simisear lmao
I am not too familiar with recent gen pokemon and, based on design alone I did think klefiki was very stupid looking. Probably not "worse design", but pretty stupid. However, upon listening the explanation I actually like it? "Where did a put my keys" is such a cliche situation it is fun they created a pokemon responsible for it. And the fact that the keys are actual real keys makes the design seem less dumb to me. Part of the problem with "real object pokemon" is it feels really silly and natural that some animal would evolve to look just like an object. But klefiki's actual natural body is not *that* artificial looking, the obviously artificial looking keys are actual literal keys, so that make sense to me. So in the end I think the top spot is very undeserving. Even at first glance I would think that saying it is "worse design" is a bit much, but upon revision I actually like the design quite a bit.
The problem with Intelleon isn't that he's a secret agent. He looks fine in some of the anime scenes you showed. It's just that his 3D model is so grossly proportioned. Needle thin arms and legs, gigantic hands, and a weird potbelly. There's something uncanny about it. It's so close to looking like a human yet any human that had those proportions would be horrifying.
I don't understand why so many people associate inanimate object pokemon and design laziness. There's plenty of animal pokemon that are literally just animals. I think allowing the creators to make pokemon off of any object will lead to far more interesting designs, and world building as well. That being said, they do still need to put in the effort to make it look good, regardless of the basis. Vanilluxe could've been designed far better.
I feel like I'm the only one who thought vanillux wasn't that bad I thought an ice cream cone was kinda cool. I actually trained him to evolve because he had 535 stat total equaling the starters so I figured he woild be good but I was wrong
I really like klefki because, I don’t know if this is true but I swear I heard it, keys in Pokémon were made after klefki. Now that I’mhonestly might not be true but I know for a fact that, and this is a pet peeve of mine, the keys aren’t apart of klefki’s body. People all the time miss see that. When he said one of klefki’s keys look like a car key I l said “yea probably is a literal car key”. The anime helped me with that cause he can unhook himself/herself to steal and add keys to his/her collection. So it like the spiral silver circle that you can add stuff with holes to, I forgot the name of them. Bottom line I enjoy klefki; I used to not because everyone else didn’t.
I don't really understand the hate for object pokémon. I love most of them. The gear pokémon are kinda lame though. Hagurumon from digimon is a way better design.
The elemental Monkeys would have worked better if the concept were closer to Eevee: starting as a Normal-type, evolvable into 3 different typing. If it was completely optional in the story, they might have been loved. If not (for balance purpose), they could have pushed to concept further doing a 180 when evolving: • Simisage as a cursing street thug (speaks evil), becoming Grass/Dark • Simisear as a noisy bikers (making people hear evil), becoming a polluting Fire/Poison • Simipour as a sightseer (making people see untold evil), becoming a Water/Psychic. Hypothesis: Gamefreak have told that many 5G Pokémon wereinspired by 1G Pokémon with a twist, or a nod to some beta Pokémon. For example, _Crocky_ and _Cactus_ made a comeback as the Sandile-line and Maractus. I believe, and this is overstretched, that Simisage, Simisear and Simipour are supposed to be both a nod to Eevee, and the Electabuzz / Magmar / Jynx trio (they used to be a trio in the beta). The energetic Simisage, the smug Simisear, and the girly Simipour fit well for Electabuzz, Magmar and Jynx respectively.
It's actually just pure gameplay reasons more than anything. They exist so that players playing through black and white would have similar experience fighting the first gym which exists to show new players type advantages. Also they are based of the the three wise monkeys which is a concept from Japan and then failing once they evolve. Simisage based off Yankii subculture; IIRC in hindsight they were more know for acting tough and cursing than actually physical violence. Simisear is based off the bōsōzoku know for removing the mufflers off of thier motor cycles causing causing complaints about noise pollution. Simipour based off of Kogal fashion which people assume to be vain and shallow.
I agree with almost all of these, but I can’t understand not liking dedenne. It’s genuinely my favorite Pikachu clone. 🥺 I like it far more than plusle and minun, Morpeko, or Togedemaru.
It really is nice to stan an underdog. Especially a grass type subpar in stats, I get you. Maractus, the world may forget you, but you‘ll always dance happily in the minds of us few
Voltorb: I have to mostly agree. I'm not Voltorb's biggest fan by any means, but while it may be simplistic, it's not simply due to laziness like some people like to claim. The whole point of the Voltorb line was to make what's basically the Pokemon equivalent of a Mimic, which is a very common enemy type in a lot of games. Their design made it easy to justify using them like this as their overworld sprites look identical to item balls. It's not a good design in a vacuum, but it fits the role it was designed for. Binacle: I don't think it looks creepy, just ugly. And not ugly-cute, just ugly-ugly. Intellion: While I do agree that Game Freak could cool it on the archetypes for starter designs, that doesn't necessarily mean the archetype-based starters are automatically bad designs by default. I'm not the biggest fan of Intellion but I don't hate it either, I like the super-spy styling but I think it's way too slender (seriously, where are its everything? It's practically a stickman). Aromatisse: In addition to being kinda awkward-looking, Aromatisse was also a huge letdown. When people first saw Spritzee, a LOT of them really bought into its bird-like appearance and mask being a reference to Plague Doctors, and predicted that its evolution would play even further into that archetype. Instead, we got a literal walking powder puff. Trubbish: This is one that really doesn't deserve the hate - the design is what I'd describe as "ugly-cute", which goes well with its lore of basically being a friendly garbage collector in Pokemon form, picking up litter and keeping the routes clean. Garbodor is a lot more ugly-ugly, but I feel like Trubbish has its charm. Unfortunately, it got released in Gen 5, which was the generation that got slammed hard for its designs due to oddballs like Heatmor and inanimates like the Vanillux line (even though a majority of Gen 5's designs were actually quite creative). Probopass: This one's just comical-looking, not necessarily bad. People who unironically hate this one have no sense of humor. Dedene: Honestly, this really shouldn't be on lists ranking worst Pokemon _designs,_ as it is cute and it does kinda invoke Raichu's appearance which is always a plus in my book (Raichu > Pikachu, fite me). The issue with Dedene is more just the fact that it's _yet another Pikaclone._ Pikachu is just Pikachu, Maril was neat since it was a different type altogether, Pichu introduced Baby Pokemon (which, to be fair, was kind of a pointless mechanic), Plusle and Minun were designed to show off double battles, Pachirisu is known for having won a world championship and Emolga has a neat design at least and exists to show off switch moves like U-Turn and Volt Switch which had been introduced that generation. But Dedene is just there, and it's the same story with every Pikaclone afterwards. Simisear: I'm not a big fan of any of the elemental monkeys but I don't find their designs bad enough to justify putting them on a bottom 15 - they're bland and uninspired but not outright horrible. I think what really hurts them, though, is that the game _forces_ an elemental monkey on you as a tutorial on type advantage, since the first gym in Unova always puts you up against a type that your starter is weak against (also in the form of an elemental monkey) - and then they turn out to be absolute garbage for the rest of the game. Bruxish: THIS is a Pokemon that is outright horrible. Its design is way too busy, and WHY THE FUCK DOES IT HAVE HUMAN LIPS?!?! The eyelashes don't bother me but the lips? Just... why? I don't mind fish Pokemon but this thing's just bad. Vanillux Line: Now, THIS is a good example of what happens when Game Freak goes too far. Its design is overdone and honestly doesn't even look like it fits in with any of the other Pokemon. The facial design in particular makes me think it's from Dragon Quest - it's very DQ slime-like, actually, and Vanillite actually looks like it could have been some sort of "frost slime" or something like that. Mr. Mime: Don't let your children around this thing. Although, it does have one saving grace - back in the early days of the TCG it was a MONSTER. Luvdisc: Another one I don't necessarily like but don't necessarily hate either. It's simple, so while it doesn't look especially good it also doesn't look really that bad. The problem with Luvdisc isn't its design, it's its purpose. Its one purpose is to be caught in large quantities for Heart Scales. The background lore for it is actually kinda heartwarming, though - no pun intended. Also, Kissing Gouramis are awesome and if you're interested in aquarium-keeping and have the space for the necessary tank I strongly recommend them. Klink: I actually kinda like them. I'm really into mechanics and the Klinklang line hits that mark for me. However, there's one issue with them that's kinda irksome - The game makes a big deal about catching one, only to reward you with little more than a pat on the back if you do. Jynx: One correction, Jynx isn't actually based on the Yuki-Ona, though I can forgive the misconception based on its ice typing. There's actually another yokai that is far better fitting for Jynx's lore - the Yama-Uba, an old crone who lives on a snowy mountaintop, but particularly the depiction of the one from the Noh drama _Yamauba, Dame of the Mountain,_ which was know to enjoy dancing and could entrance people with her widely swaying dance steps - much like how Jynx can hypnotically entice others to dance with it. We didn't get a proper Yuki-Ona Pokemon until Froslass. Honestly, Jynx is a Pokemon I like mostly for the lore and background. Its design is iffy but it has some of the best background lore of any first-gen Pokemon. Klefki: If you think this one gets a lot of hate, just imagine how bad it would be if Klefki had been introduced just one generation earlier. Also, I think part of the hate is because of how good (and thus how annoying) it was as a status/disruption Pokemon in competitive play when X and Y first came out. Klefki gets Prankster as an ability, which gives its status moves priority. So if your opponent is running one on their team, you know that your opponent is going to be able to get a free reflect or magic coat, or hit you with a toxic or thunder wave. And since it also has relatively decent bulk and great defensive typing, chances are it will get away with it and live to do it again. Honorable Mentions Short List: Stunfisk: This is my least favorite. Hands down. Garbodor: I already mentioned this one with Trubbish, it just loses its charm when it evolves. Muk: Is made of toxic sludge. Ash's likes to give hugs. How is that kid not dead? Exploud: Just a bit too busy. Alolan Dugtrio: And I say HEEEYEAAAYEAAAYEAAAH! HEEEYEAAAYEAAAAH! I say hey! What's goin' on! Alolan Persian: I can haz cheezburger? ...Yeah, Alolan Dugtrio and Alolan Persian are memes in Pokemon form.
I can't recall where, but I've heard it speculated that the trio of Jynx, Magmar, and Electabuzz were inspired by three kaiju from Ultraman that took place in a season of that show that had something conceptually similar to Pokemon going on. I've never watched anything Ultraman-related, but I think that it's worth mentioning as a counterpoint to the relatively obscure Western origins that have been posited as alternative explanations to the ganguro theory for Jynx's origin.
Very interesting. They really are like an unofficial trio too. Kinda too bad Jynx never got an evolution then. Magmar is actually my least favorite of the three
Aww, man. Klefki's my favorite gen 6 pokemon. I'm just glad my favorite gen 1 pokemon, Muk, was left off the list. "Inanimate object with a face" is my favorite pokemon trope. Pokemon can't get simple enough - it's the overly complicated designs that I don't like.
I want to preface that none of this is targeted at Paraspectre as that would be shooting the messenger as it were, I’m just giving my thoughts on the weird complaints people have that I don’t understand personally. I’m surprised more gen 1 lines didn’t make the list for the same reason as the vanillite klink and voltorb lines. We have grimer and muk, doduo and dodrio, diglett and dugtrio, magnemite and magneton, or clefairy and clefable. I’m not even saying I dislike all of these gen 1 pokemon, but it’s the same argument given for the hate of trubbish or klefkey or vanilitte as if it was only after gen 1 that they got lazy and made the same pokemon 2-3 times but slightly different. Gen 1 has a lot of bad and a lot of good designs, but all the tropes are still there. And to clarify some of the pokemon I said like the magnemite line are among my favorites, especially with magnezone in gen 4. My point was that it can still be seen as lazy as it is just 3 magnemites. Interesting that the non electric type rodents like Marill didn’t make the list. It’s one of my favorite pokemon, but it was the first pikachu clone unless you count pichu. I think it tells me that making non electric rodents that look like pikachu might be a natural next step. I also don’t really understand the hate for non animal pokemon when people also get mad about lovedisc looking too much like a fish? Do you want animals or not?? You can’t say it’s not animal enough and then get mad if they make an animal, come on people. Like pidgey has the issues of klink and lovedisc on that it’s the same bird 3 times and it’s just a normal bird, but you don’t see too much pidgey line hatred. It feels hypocritical to me at least The least appealing designs to me are when the two extremes, human features, and just an animal, don’t mix well in any way. A great example on this list was Bruxish. It has a human face on a normal fish. Or Binacle which just slaps a human face on a couple of barnacles. It feels lazy, uncomfortable to look at, and just unappealing personally. And of course taste is subjective so if you like any pokemon on the list then that’s totally fine and cool. I really don’t have strong opinions about most of the pokemon listed. My least favorite starter is chestnaught and that line did not make the list, so it goes to show that personal opinion isn’t objective. Nobody is going to read this and it’s more for me to compile my thoughts, but nevertheless I thought I’d share.
I wholly agree. Overly humanoid features on Mons are among my least favourite. Although in saying that I have a dislike for some of the timeless classics, and love some of the less appreciated guys for my own reasons. Can't please everyone and that's cool. Bruxish is unnerving too.
"when the two extremes, human features, and just an animal, don’t mix well in any way." 100% agreed. I think that's why Gen 1 gets a pass, the pokemon there look more animal than human while later gens start mixing the two more.
As a player of the game (having not watched the anime in so long), I grow attached to any Pokémon on my team and have come to appreciate a lot of uglies just because of our “experiences together”
i love weird pokémon, but i understand why people don't like them. i don't dislike any pokémon really, at the most i'm just indifferent to them. of this list, i love: vanilluxe line, klinklang line, garbodor line, mr. mime and the unova monkeys. and like: voltorb line, luvdisc, dedenne and klefki.
People always seem to miss that its just a JRPG mimic u know the treasure chests that are a trap and attack you? Items are found in pokeballs, so that's what voltorb is. The pokemon world's Mimic
There's something I realized about Jynx. Let's ignore the humanoid and controversy of the design. I think Jynx does a poor job of representing the types it has. There is very little to suggest it's a Psychic type, and even less to tell you it's part Ice. If you showed it to someone new to Pokemon and asked them what type they think it is I wonder what they'd guess.
What I hate about inteleon is that they could have done a much different design. Since it's crying a lot as a baby and has a goth style middle stage. I wish they would've done a Shakespeare theme for intelleon. A water/ghost sad lizard representing Shakespeare tragedies with it holding a skull. When they said they were doing British culture as the theme I was hoping they would've done Shakespeare but they didn't. Intelleon doesn't go with the other two in the Evo line. Side note: one of my friends, her favorite Pokémon is Klink.
But see, we kinda get why Sobble becomes Intel eon. Lockstin thought of the idea that because Sobble was a shut in, they became a secret agent because they know how people keep secrets as they did too. Plus it make sense because of how famous James Bond is in the U.K, so having a James Bond based Pokémon as a starter in a region based off the U.K makes sense.
I actually like Timbur, but I am not really a fan of the design path the evolutions went with. As for Simisear, I actually like it, and either Simisage or Simipour would probably be in my top 10 pokemon from Gen 5. I think part of the problem was that Japan held an official popularity contest that Simisear scored dead last in, but said contest had the prize being that the winning pokemon would get a special mystery gift version distributed, meaning quite a lot of people voted for either competitive or rare pokemon (for reference, the top 10 were Greninja, Arceus, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Genesect, Rayquaza, Zygarde, Charizard, and Melloetta). The elemental monkeys, on top of not being the most popular, were also super easy to get your hands on, and not the most competitive, so they as a whole didn't do well, with Simisear doing worst of all. This lead to the idea that Simisear being an unpopular or "bad" pokemon, and thus it crops up a disproportionate amount of times on sites listing the worst pokemon, when in my opinion at least, it isn't a particularly offensive pokemon, at least compared to Druddigon (Who I personally like, but I will freely admit it's color scheme is a hot mess).
4:20 That's because "worst design lists" and other listicles generally aren't made by actual fans or members of a given community, and rather by people looking to make a quick clickbait article without any real depth or breadth of understanding of the subject matter. Most people at least are ok with Voltorb if not outright like it, for the reasons you gave. It actually makes sense that a pokemon might evolve to look like something else as a survival trait, as a form of natural camouflage. It's a simple design, but simple doesn't mean bad, and while it may be "just" a pokeball with eyes, a pokeball is already an interesting object that doesn't exist in real life, it's already a rather catchy, interesting design. But the kind of person who makes these lists just goes, looks for designs that to them seem boring, and toss it on the list. Maybe there'll be some that the community has made enough noise about to penetrate wider consciousness so they end up there too, like Trubbish and Klefki, sure, but ultimately i don't think much thought or critical thinking goes into lists like these. They exist to get people to click the link, not to be informative or valuable.
I definitely don’t disagree but I wasn’t really trying to discredit them, nor was I trying to use them as gospel. I just wanted to look into the origins of “the worst Pokémon” and googling 10-11 sites seemed like a good platform to go off of
@@Paraspectre I'm aware. But my overly literal mind _required_ me to answer why the list had Voltorb despite no one commenting to give their suggestion listed it.
Luvdisc is my wife's favorite Pokémon. And while Klefki isn't my favorite overall, it's my favorite one from gen 6. I think it's really creative and cute. I actually really like some from this list, even if I do dislike many.
I like Klefki, but I think it would have been better if it were like Spinda and had a numerous amount of keys programmed in. It feels really weird that there are the same 4 keys on every Klefki despite the fact that we know the keys are not part of it's body, and just something it likes collecting.
I never thought of this but you’re exactly right. Why aren’t there different or more keys? It kinda cheapens the whole concept even more now. EVERY Klefki stole somebody’s car key? Come on.
@@Paraspectre And it's literally in the gen with Flabébé who has different models for each type of flower it can get, since the flowers are, again, not part of its body, but they couldn't do it for poor Klefki.
No one seems to mention that the whole point of voltorb is that it is a classic RPG mimic. All rpgs have them usually as monsters disguised as chests. So having it look like a pokeball to surprise people thinking it is a chest is genius. It was probably made for the power plant as the whole point of the plant is loads of voltorb disguised as items
Voltorbs design saw a refresh in hisui but i think itd be so much better if they made it like an eevee where it could evolve into different kinds of pokeballs (possibly typed by the pokemon the ball would traditionally catch)
With Voltorb, the darker top looks like hair and with electrode, the darker bottom half looks like a beard with a bald head so it always seemed the right evolution order to me as a kid
OMG Same the Ice Cream Family is just so cute & way better designed than the other common ice types of Gen 5. Food Pokémon always felt different from random object Pokémon & even then Litwick Family is well designed. I don't get how someone can possibly prefer Cryogonal to Vanilluxe.
@@bookmew1081 I also really like Cryog lmao I guess it’s because other Pokémon are designed all smooth and nice and then HERES A POLYGON GODDAMNIT I can understand if other ppl think it’s bland I just like my snowflake
Conkeldurr and Gurdurr even more so look ugly but Timburr has a fantastic design. Pokemon Black was my first game and I kept an unevolved Timburr on my team the whole playthrough and beat the champion with it. He's was less grotesquely veiny and clownish than the others
I think I may have posted a similar comment already, but I initially liked Timburr but disliked its evolutions. Eventually, Gurdurr ended up growing on me, and I think a major reason for that was because Conquest and Gates to Infinity did a very good job at making art that had Gurdurr be really expressive. I still don't like Conkeldurr, however.
I'm honestly a huge fan of Klefki. I enjoy Fairy types based on literal fae, and the way it battles is the embodiment of a "teehee" playstyle, which I personally enjoy. I wouldn't say it's my number 1 favorite but it's definitely up there. I dunno, I find it hard to hate a lot of Pokemon, I can appreciate the ideas behind them even if I don't latch on to them. So maybe that's just me.
For sure, which is why I thought this would be a fun video idea. Instead of yelling and hating on Pokémon many people dislike, why not explain where they came from?
In this video I learned that I'm a contrarian, for the most part I like almost all the designs mentioned or at least think they're okay. I love Trubbish and Vanilite, they're so cute. Fuck Barnicle and Barbaricle tho, the eyes on the hands creep me out.
While not my #1 favorite Pokémon, I actually really like Spritzee & Aromatisse. I like Spritzee a bit more, & If I were to have been the one to design it I wouldn’t have gone that exact route. I do however hate how it’s design always features it’s one leg sticking out. Without that leg sticking it, it’s design becomes sooooo much better in my opinion. Shiny Spritzee is one of my all time favorite shinies too, definitely in my top 3 favorite shinies.
Voltorb is a mimic, which is a common enemy type in JRPGs, so I can't really understand why people dislike it. Sure, it's simple, but it looks like a pokeball because overworld items look like pokeballs in the games; you think you're picking up an item but then you get ambushed by a voltorb. It's a game mechanic.
Well today I learned that I must have no taste, because I don't have much issue with pokemon designs, mostly just when something looks super boring, like most fish pokemon
If this had been focusing on the shinies; shiny Okidogi is the ugliest one in existence. At least shiny Bruxish is a partial improvement over the original.
Huh, I didn't know that people from Africa were famous for having long, straight blonde hair. You learn something new every day. I'm sorry, but the whole "Jinx is a racial stereotype of black people" has always rung hollow to me ever since it started back in the day. Do I not like the more humanoid Pokemon in general? Yes. Especially the ones who somehow have "natural" clothing? Yes. But to try and claim it's a racial stereotype due to it's black skin is a heck of a stretch. And if people claim "It also has big lips!", well so do Smoochum and Bruxish. Are they racial stereotypes of black people, too? Or Snorlax and Skitty, since they could be seen to have "squinty eyes", thus are Asian stereotypes (well, Korean, since this is a Japanese game)? If people try hard enough, they can (and will) find something they can decry as offensive in some manner. With that rant finally out of my system... I actually like Voltorb's design since it's intended to be a mimic/treasure chest trap for the player. Though I'm less of a fan of Foongus and Galarian Stunfisk, since hopefully people would be wary of a Pokeball perfectly half-buried in the ground (Voltorb just needs to close it's eyes or be facing away). Then again, why would you just be picking up a random abandoned Pokeball laying on the ground in the middle of nowhere - especially after the first time you ran into one of the aforementioned three Pokemon?
Keep in mind that this is not MY list. These aren’t concepts I made up, I’m simply stating why a large number of people found Jynx to be offensive and why it was on so many worst-of lists. It’s why Jynx was changed from black to purple. My list would be entirely different from this one. I think Voltorb is pretty cool.
@@Paraspectre Yep. I understand. I even swapped a (generic) 'you' for 'people' just before posting that to ensure it wouldn't be mistaken for ranting specifically at you. It's just the same as people claiming that Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball is a racial stereotype of a black person... happily ignoring that Dragon Ball had ACTUAL black people before him in it who looked nothing like him. Claiming racism is generally one of the easiest ways to get negative attention slapped onto something and a lot of people (especially companies) will cave to that to avoid the bad press. Probably why Jinx has missed out on getting an evolved form (not that I feel it needs one, but if Electrobuzz and Magmar got one, why not complete the pseudo-trio?). But this is Pokemon, back to the fun, cool things. Yeah, Inteleon would definitely work better on it's own, especially since it really doesn't flow from it's pre-evolutions. Cry-baby -> Blue Goth -> James Bond!? lol
Black people don't have big red lips either, but racists caricatures often gave them big red lips ^^ That's the thing about a racist caricature, it does not ressemble the actual thing. Like caicatures of asian people look nothing like asian people! I don't think Jynx was really a racist design, but it was very close of it, probably by accident, and it's good they modified it at least in the western versions ^^
A lot of the designs people hate the most come from gen 5 it seems. There's a lot of great stuff from that generation, but you also can tell they were stretched thin for design ideas. I do also wonder if the Luvdisc hate also comes from how unuseable it is in-game.
The original gen 5 games also made the risky decision of making the regional pokedex made up of only the new mons. So the bad ones stuck out more. Even Pikachu sat this game out. And I do get it now as personally gen 9 has a lot of designs that don't quite click with me. But there's so many options in that game for your team that it's easy to not pay attention and just focus on the ones I do like and the old favourites.
I didn't "get" Voltorb for a while until I realized he is the Pokemon version of Mimics from traditional RPGs. Once I realized that it wasn't just a trick for the Pokemon series, but that they were building on a foundation of "enemies that disguise themselves as treasure chests," I thought the way Voltorb was designed was brilliant.
Also, it's sad that Inteleon is the only starter on this list. Personally, I'm pretty disappointed with the way every Pokemon starter with the exception of like, Chikorita, Snivy, and Popplio, goes from being cute to being tough-looking. The worst offender to me, though, is Oshawott. I hate that he goes from being a cute bipedal otter to this weird quadrapedal sea lion thing. I actually only just looked up what Samurott's design was based on bc I never really even understood what it was supposed to be. That's how little that design works for it. The only tough/"cool" starter evolutions I like are Inteleon, Venusaur, Feraligatr, and to some extent I don't terribly dislike Blastoise and Cinderace. I do wish they would try to make it so every gen has one starter line that stays cute/pretty the whole way through. It's kind of sad to want to abandon your starting friend just because they grew up awkwardly ;p
High-five for another snubbull admirer! I may be biased because its surname matches mine, but dammit if I don't think this li'l fairy pup is the best dog pokémon. And certainly the #1 dog pokémon, growlithe be damned.
I'm pretty neutral on Jynx but I always thought the controversy was dumb. People have a way too america centric viewpoint about racism for content from Japan.
Im american, i agree, americans are completely stupid when it comes to context. Context doesnt exist for like 40% of americans. A lot think american culture is the default way of life. And when it comes to the jynx "controversy", id be willing to bet the 5% of the people offended were black and 95% were those white people that think everything is offensive.
Voltorbs true inspiration is the Japanese legend of tools coming to life on their 100th birthday. The thought of pokeballs that people left in the forest one day started rolling around and shocking people is amazing. Voltorbs always cool with me.
I'm so sad I missed the poll! Hopefully I'll see the next one you do. I like smaller channels like this because I feel like everyone's voice matters all that much more
I kinda like trubbish it's strangely cute bit also it was suppose to be gen 5's version of mul and grimer it was a reboot of the series in some ways as alot of those gen 5 pokdmon are suppose to be mirror reflections of gen 1 pokemon as well a few others ( timber line is machop, roggenrola is geodude, Zoarock is lucario) I think it was to allow players to feel the feelings they did during gen 1 being forced to use new pokemon while giving a sense of familiarity
Gen 5 had such a weird hit and miss going on with designs. Love a lot of them, but then there are the monkeys, timburr line, and sawk and throh. I don't mind object mons but klink and garbador felt like bad rehashes of magnemite and muk. I do think trubbish is cute though. Always surprised mons like cryogonal don't make these lists its always jarring to see it in the games doesn't look like it belongs as a design at all lol
Voltorb is what is called a "mimic", a common RPG monster that looks like an item and is actually a monster, catching the player by surprise... I feel that many people who don't understand that just don't understand RPGs in general...
It's so funny to see so many of my lower-key favorites on this compilation of fan-not-favorites. Dedenne is actually the first Pika clone I liked at all since the original Pikachu, exactly because of its resemblance to Raichu. I actually like Raichu's color scheme quite a bit, but it never felt like it should be the evolution of Pikachu and it was even worse after Pichu came into the picture - now Raichu is the odd one out, because Pichu and Pikachu look quite similar because of their colors while Raichu's jump to orange is just too harsh. Dedenne takes a lot of Raichu's colors and remixes them into a very cute new pokemon that I love as a standalone. I do think it could do without the cheek gimmick (it already has whiskers to fill the space) but on a worst design list? I could never. Then there's Trubbish. I actually find Trubbish to be quite cute design-wise. I thought the bunny angle was great and it legitimately was new to me that trash backs could look like bunnies. Now I can't unsee it. I don't really like that it evolves into just a bigger version - I think its small rounded form is what made the design work in the first place - but on its own, Trubbish is great. I do get the hangup of "why does it have to have human-made material in it" though. I generally like to see pokemon and humans as life forms that evolved in symbiosis and even when I design my own monsters (not necessarily fakemons, just in general) that's one angle I approach things from. Trubbish and Grimer (and their evos) both go negative with this, saying "these only exist because humans pollute the environment" and adding human-made material to it just makes sense conceptionally. Then, Vanillite. I absolutely agree with the sentiment that it didn't need to have 3 stages. I actually kinda love Vanillite purely in design, but it's another one of these where I think the round and small shape made it work. I liken it to Diglett and Dugtrio - I like the base of Diglett quite a bit, because it's very simple but very cute. It evolves once and doesn't stray too far from its base, so I like Dugtrio by proxy. Vanillish and Vanilluxe though... not only do they double down on the idea by being 2 extra stages, they also shed all of the nice form factor Vanillite had and that makes them less appealing. Again the concept itself doesn't bother ME personally too much, but the "coincidence" of them looking like icecream cones is rather distracting at times. I like to think humans came up with icecream after discovering the pokemon, personally. Then lastly, Mr. Mime. But only in the right circumstances. The original Sugimori artwork you started the section with is actually the reason I like the design. Its body and head are perfectly round like juggling balls and give it a nice balanced shape while the four-fingered hands are purposefully more like frog or gecko-feet (there's species that can stick on glass and such even) instead of human hands, which makes it work much better imo. The head is also smaller than the body there, unlike many of its iterations, which gives it a bit of a snowman vibe and adds to the unique shape. Then, the vibrant colors - the red, white and dark blue fit together well, while the pink of the face and limbs is subdued. Most of these features are lost in other depictions, where Mr. Mime often has a more "human-shaped" head and less vibrant colors (the balls are usually a strange pink which looks bad imo). Does it look too human? In the context of "pokemon can be pets", yes. But I thought the original version of Mr. Mime looked enough like a weird gremlin to be okay and got ruined along the way. By the way, Mr. Mime is one of the few pokemon that I think was translated incredibly well into the modern pokemon 3D models. 90% of the time I find them off-putting and impression-less but Mr. Mime moves like a marionette and it's absolutely amazing - it's so unnerving but perfectly captures the pantomime inspiration. -------------- Sorry for the long comment, I just reaaaaaally love rambling about creature design. Sidenote, I don't understand how Klefki could make first place. It's squarely in the middle of pokemon design for me. Like, yeah, it's just a bunch of keys, but it feels so inoffensive and conceptionally sound (fairies ARE strongly associated with mischief) that I'm just surprised it beat out the commonly cited ones like Mr. Mime and Jynx. Interesting.
Trubish is a special pokemon cause they completed the waste in the world.. land,sea and air.. we started with muk. He is the sea pollution.. then we have weezing.. he is the sky/air pollution.. so when the brought gabador in that was the land pollution.. so we have as I figure. Oil for water. Smoke for air. And trash for land..
Honestly, I love quite a few pokemon that people call ugly. garbodor, Mr mime, the vaniluxe line, the magmortar line, and so on. Heck, Mr mime, garbodor, and vaniluxe are my favorites or second favorites of their types. I also LOVE the simi trio for some reason. Even simisear, I love all three of my monkey children equally. It's like there are these pokemon people love to hate, but I just can't hate them for like, any reason.
Having a theme doesnt mean they all behave the same Every Pokémon has diverse personalities The point of the franchise is that they are your buddies your best friend and life long partner
I was not too surprised by most of the Pokemon on this list but Inteleon making it was odd. I thought it was pretty cool and the fact it has actual finger guns only sweetens the concept.Also very surprised that Stunfisk did not make it. I am not a big fan and felt for sure it would be in the top 5 at least.
The conkeldurr line looks stupid and has stupid names. If they didn't have use in the meta they'd be universally hated. Blows my mind anyone likes these designs.
100%. On top of looking horrible, the whole Conkeldurr line is probably the only one that actively makes me angry because of just how horribly uninspired it is, literally just ripping their own earlier line off from Machop. Like, at least with the basic early route birds/rodents and the electric mice those were all just recurring things they always did, Machop never had a recurring expy in other generations. They even literally had it finish evolving by trading too. Just awful all around.
Blow-by-blow video responses below for those who enjoy verbal vomit: You're definitely not the only person I've heard have beef with the 'urrs. It definitely seems their giant veins and weird proportions rub a lot of people the wrong way. I actually don't mind them myself, I kind of like the badass grandpa thing conkeldurr's got going on, though gurdurr is pretty freaky, and the carnie strongman reference with its clownish look is a bit too isolated in its middle stage to really come off all that justified. I never thought voltorb deserved to be put on the poorly-designed lists, just because it's simply designed doesn't mean it's poorly designed, it's basically Pokémon's resident mimic, and has some pretty fun subtle references to its electric typing. Not to mention, spontaneous explosions are fun. Binacle... Yeah, I guess I can say it's hard to genuinely like it, even if its design did have some thought put into it. I guess not every pokémon has to be particularly lovable, or even cool, and I guess binacle's crabby crustacean vibes prevent it from at least being charmingly dopey like dunsparce or lickitung or something. But still, I wouldn't say its being unappealing made its design bad, as you said, barnacles aren't all that appealing to begin with, so it stands to reason that neither is binacle. I've always thought inteleon was really cool, and surprised at how many people complained about it. I guess it suffers less from being a poorly-designed pokémon than it does from arguably being a poorly-designed starter in a poorly-designed evolution line. You don't hear too many giving machamp or hariyama beef for being wrestlers, as a player has the option to catch them or leave them, but once you make someone's starter automatically become a wrestler, or other sort of human character archetype, it could rub people the wrong way, especially if the pokémon didn't originally embody a human character that much, a problem which is pretty prominent with inteleon, as drizzile really strains to connect the two other forms with its emo vibe trying to embody both sobble's misery and inteleon's cryptic style. I've said before that aromatisse has grown on me, and that's mainly due to my fond memories of watching Get Smart with my mum, and aromatisse's combination of doctor and showgirl characteristics making it remind me of Doctor Simon. I still like spritzee more, but I'm also probably one of the few who doesn't fault aromatisse for not being plague-doctor-y enough. I always found spritzee's plague doctor inspiration charmingly subtle, and aromatisse carries that on reasonably well. Trubbish, like voltorb, always seemed undeserving of the bad-design label to me, as it's pretty well-designed as a garbage monster, people just seem to think a garbage monster is for some reason a bad concept. I mean, is it gross? Yeah, of course, but it's a poison type, it's supposed to be. The fact that it's based on something artificial doesn't seem to be all that just grounds to hate it either, as gen 1 already had magnemite, and banette is also basically a trash pokémon, and no one gives it grief. Trubbish and garbodor aren't even among my favourite pokémon, but I really don't think their reputation is fair. Probopass is another one I'd say is more of an unappealing design rather than a bad design, I won't say I was tripping over myself to get one of these when I first saw it, but I thought the idea of upgrading the big-nosed pokémon by giving it a mustache made sense enough, and building on nosepass's magnetic nose with a metal shavings mustache is clever, plus the addition of the hats recently discovered on actual moai was a neat touch. I'm with you on plusle and minun seeming more like copies of pichu (they always looked more like pichu than pikachu to me). Don't see why dedenne is being singled out, it's at least got some neat antenna whiskers. I guess it must be mostly contextual, as you say, even if the pikachu archetype was well codified at this point, so it seems hard to fault dedenne for basically doing its job of being gen 6's resident pikachu lookalike. Simisear... yeah, I think this one may be an actual dud, as it doesn't really come off as meant to be a joke. I've heard it suggested that each monkey's evolved form is meant to represent a failure of holding up to the value the unevolved form represents, with simisear being a biker that enjoys the rumble of its motor a bit too much, so maybe the evolved forms are supposed to be unappealing for that reason? Though even in that case, simisear seems to miss the mark of cocky biker and come across more flamboyant instead, so even knowing the thought behind it, it's still pretty awkward. Bruxish has never been my favourite either, I guess its idea is meant to embody drag show energy. Not sure how big the overlap is with Pokémon players and drag enthusiasts, maybe it's too small to leave room for much bruxish love. I've always been a bit confused by how its level-up moveset and just about its entire dex entry seem to completely ignore the whole glam thing it's got going on (looking at its game data, you wouldn't get a sense of it apart from one, maybe two of its abilities, and its Violet entry), but it seems it was meant to contrast the likes of luvdisc by being "pretty" without coming off as passive, and still having a strong tough element to its design. In any case, it kind of does feel as if its flamboyance is supposed to be over-the-top, so I don't think I can fault bruxish that much, even if I'm not all that fond of it. I've always kind of liked the vanillite line myself, vanillite is just a cute li'l ice cream friend, if cherubi can be a cute food friend, so can vanillite. Vanilluxe is pretty cleverly designed at least, with the twin heads referencing double-scoops/banana splits in a neat way with the icy bits doubling as looking like seasoning. Vanillish is probably my least favourite of the 3, but it bridges the other 2 pretty well. I guess a lot dislike these guys because they find their origin silly, but again, I don't think they're really meant to be taken all that seriously in the first place, so bad design doesn't seem like a worthy label here. Just like you with Mr. Mime, I definitely came to appreciate it more after its getting to be in the funniest scene of Detective Pikachu, though I didn't really fault it for being weird before, as it was pretty clearly meant to be bizarre. Luvdisc, I actually really like, and I have fond memories riding around Hoenn on the one I had traded from my cousin. As with voltorb, I'd say that simple isn't always bad, and in any case, it's better than the Valentine-heart fakémon I recall making up as a kid, so there's that. Jynx is kind of in the same boat as bruxish, it has elements that seem to suggest prettiness without the design itself actually looking in any way appealing, though with jynx, it's even harder to even tell whether or not that was on purpose. I remember not liking it earlier on, but its looping to coming off so-bad-it's-good with time. Though I guess it's hard to blame anyone not fond of it. I'd say at least Alolan dugtrio makes sense, being meant to embody the classic rich-person-on-an-island-vacation look with a reference to volcanic glass tying in with both the ground type and the volcanic island setting. Seems to be pretty clever to me, and I kind of feel as if the design is supposed to look a bit silly, so I can't really fault them. Persian, I dunno, though, I guess the idea was an inbred-to-the-point-of-being-deformed pedigree pet, but I can't help but think the developers went a bit overboard with it, especially considered how overshadowed persian is by meowth to begin with.
As a Dutch person I have a correction for your explanation on Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). He's not the Dutch Santa Claus, but actually the servant to the Dutch Santa counterpart, Sinterklaas. That makes the situation even worse, with slavery concerns and all that, because there are usually several of them involved. The racism concern didn't come up much in the past, until the last 10 years or so. Now, a new type of Pete has been introduced: the Roetveegpiet (Soot Pete): it ditches the hoop earrings, red lips and black face paint, in return the face paint is much lighter and applied haphazardly to resemble soot.
Ahh very interesting, thank you for clarifying that. It was a little confusing to get the real explanation in my research, so I apologize if I wasn’t completely accurate there
@@Paraspectre No sweat! The point was that it's a very prominent and controversial blackface character who's also involved with a holiday. That point came across perfectly.
One thing to remember is that these lists often can't be used to represent all Pokemon fans. Because frankly, most fans aren't likely to make lists on the site... and Pokemon just has way too many fans... Often, haters will be more vocal than non-haters...
I associated Gen 7's Pikaclone with Mimikyu so much I forgot Togedemaru existed. I like the Vanillite line, and Smogon summed Luvdisc up perfectly in their analysis for it in Gen 4: "We'll take a generic Water-type, give it crummy stats EVERYWHERE except for Speed, give him a trait that doubles his Speed in the rain and the option to use Agility and call it a day. Luvdisc is great if you're playing with Battle Timeout, because its mere presence should cause your opponent to laugh at it for so long that you win the match."
Here is my defense of Simisear: he's basically a vibe, just a dude hanging out and chilling. He's the embodiment of "oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯", drifting through life as if it was a lazy river. And that's absolutely a way of life I can get behind.
I saw a video that explains that voltorb, electrode, foongus & amoongus are supposed to be "mimic" and like pkmn is kind of an rpg thats when I changed my mind
Voltorb exists also to fill the rpg trope of the mimic, since items or "treasure chests" look like pokeballs in the games. I always thought this was genius along with the positive/negative charge tidbit.
For sure, I was surprised to see Voltorb make it. I think it’s a fun concept
And later on, Foongus and hahafuniamogusjoke as well in Generation 5 since they did a soft reboot.
Except with more design.
THIS is why no youtube comments mentioned voltorb but it was on all the article lists, you have to be a fake fan to not recognize its true genius
True. Sure it seems uncreative now but it was a novelty when it was created.
And sure Electrode is just an upsides down pokeball with a face. But that face is very expressive. Might be one of the only Pokémon that even the new 3D models couldn't make lifeless.
Trubbish is only hated for a circlejerk meme, it's design is better than its given credit for
Voltorb is supposed to also are an interpretation of Mimics which are Monsters that disguise themselves as treasure chests to trick people into opening them and then being surprised that it’s not a chest.
Speaking of, fun Pokémon fact:
Amoonguss is described as using its PokéBall appearance to fool its prey.
You are one of those that are fooled (on that route north of Opelucid).
Amoonguss eats people, and it's canon.
I really dislike the train of thought that "object" Pokémon are lazy, and I even dare to say that said notion is wrong
think about it, if you were tasked to design a creature your first instinct would most likely be taking an animal for its base, choosing to make an object into a creature would be going deliberately against those initial thoughts. And as you pointed out in the video, every "object" Pokémon is contextualised in-universe, so that's another part where you can't take a shortcut, specially since last I checked keyrings don't have biology to take as a base.
anyways I actually like Voltorb, Aromatisse, Trubish, Vanillite, Jynx, Klefki and their respective evolutionary lines.
Jynx specifically is unirocally among my top 6 gen 1 Pokémon designs, I've loved Aromatisse ever since I saw someone compare it to a Jim Henson creature design and I think Vanilluxe looks very cute
EDIT: I should probably explain why I like Jynx I just realized. I like her because she is big, short and has a simple face, traits sadly not very common in female designs, at least not when I was growing up. Not that I share any physical attributes with Jynx or anything but I just like that she is different. And as much as I like her I won't argue for a second that her original design wasn't a good decision at all.
I'm with you on the Timburr line, first time I ever saw them was in a romhack and I thought they were some awful fakemon someone made. My day was ruined when I learned they were real.
Haha I love that. If people like them, that’s cool. I just cannot get behind all three of them
I unironically love Garbador and Vanilluxe. They're a fucking heap of garbage and a giant double ice cream cone. You can't not love that shit dude. I just like the "inanimate object Pokemon" in general I guess. Klefki, however, is an exception. It has the "Prankster" ability, which is an absolutely infuriating ability to attempt to deal with when playing the game competitively (or at least it was back in gen 6).
I definitely prefer Trubbish and Vanillite to Garbodor and Vanilluxe
I used to really hate the elemental monkeys until I learned how deep the reference goes, and got a lot more respect for them because of it. If you are interested:
You mentioned them referencing the 3 wise monkeys, with pansage as speak no evil, (with his open mouth), pansear as hear no evil (with his hand up to his ear like he's trying to listen), and panpour as see no evil (with her eyes closed)
However when they "get older" and evolve, they also bend the wise monkey rules by also being associated with different delinquent youth culture.
Simisage is a Bosozoku, a Japanese bike gang famous for wearing baggy pants and their pompadours. They can't speak evil because their bikes are too noisy to talk over
Simisear is a yankii, a gang characterized by their short permed hair and shaved eyebrows. Famous for their foul, loud mouths, they can't hear evil over their own shouting
Simipour is less gang related and more a reference to gal culture, which involves general vanity among other thinga. She still has her eyes closed, so she can't see evil, but seeing HER might be...
They still are ugly, but the reference is really good with how much went into it
Wow, I did not know any of this. So then they could be chalked up to being kinda lost in translation to western audiences. I love learning the lore behind these but I still don’t like how they look. The colors are too muted or something and they’re just strangely shaped
@@Paraspectre definitely lost in translation, which is ironic for the region based on the US. I really do wish they made these guys more appealing. They are sooooo hard to look at. They kinda feel like that awkward middle stage for a pokemon, where they aren't finished.
@@Paraspectre During Gen 5, the pokemon magazine organized a poll in Japan to class all the pokemons existing accoding to the public. The three elemental monkeys were very low with Simisear last, apparently japanese didn't liked or get that reference ^^'
I really doesn't help that the subculture Simisage and Simisear were already pretty very dated when black and white released, heck Josuke Higashikata was refered to as dated by Hirohiko Araki's Editor in 1992.
I think people’s problem with Aromatisse isn’t it’s Can-can dancer influence but more that fans @ the time of X&Y’s release were excited to see Spritzee take inspiration from Plague doctors and were disappointed by the evolution straying away from a version they imagined (dark, grime, tall and lanky ectect ). Plus the opinion that making a Pokemon based off Can-can dancing, which is a really tame dance all things considered, is “awkward” or “provocative” is pretty funny given that Lopunny exists- A Pokemon purely based off of Playboy bunnies and the girl’s bunny outfits. But the fandom loves that one 😑
Right? Where was Lopunny on these lists? I’m not personally offended by Aromatisse or anything but the leg peek thing is a little strange 😅
Living object Pokemon don't bug me much bc so much of Japanese folklore is household objects gaining sentience. Pokemon is a Japanese game produced in Japan.
Very true. There’s a lot of interesting history behind them
Unironically big fan of simipour and simisage here. Love monkeys and I think Simipour looks super chill and simisage looks like a chill biker. But not even I like simisear lmao
Honestly.. I think Trubbish is cute as hell. He was on my team for like half the game
for real it’s genuinely cute
Proudly love Klefki, Trubbish and Vannilite (and their evolutionary lines). Love them as Pokemon and love their designs.
I am not too familiar with recent gen pokemon and, based on design alone I did think klefiki was very stupid looking. Probably not "worse design", but pretty stupid. However, upon listening the explanation I actually like it? "Where did a put my keys" is such a cliche situation it is fun they created a pokemon responsible for it. And the fact that the keys are actual real keys makes the design seem less dumb to me. Part of the problem with "real object pokemon" is it feels really silly and natural that some animal would evolve to look just like an object. But klefiki's actual natural body is not *that* artificial looking, the obviously artificial looking keys are actual literal keys, so that make sense to me.
So in the end I think the top spot is very undeserving. Even at first glance I would think that saying it is "worse design" is a bit much, but upon revision I actually like the design quite a bit.
Yeah it certainly wouldn’t be my #1. It wouldn’t make my bottom 15, which, I currently have no set list. Maybe I’ll make mine in the future
The problem with Intelleon isn't that he's a secret agent. He looks fine in some of the anime scenes you showed. It's just that his 3D model is so grossly proportioned. Needle thin arms and legs, gigantic hands, and a weird potbelly. There's something uncanny about it. It's so close to looking like a human yet any human that had those proportions would be horrifying.
It’s maybe a bit too thin, yeah. They really went for that SLEEK lizard look
F the haters, Trubbish is adorable.
I don't understand why so many people associate inanimate object pokemon and design laziness. There's plenty of animal pokemon that are literally just animals. I think allowing the creators to make pokemon off of any object will lead to far more interesting designs, and world building as well.
That being said, they do still need to put in the effort to make it look good, regardless of the basis. Vanilluxe could've been designed far better.
The same people usually complain about it being "modern pokemon" yet even Gen 1 has that
One is a seal litterally called seel.
I feel like I'm the only one who thought vanillux wasn't that bad I thought an ice cream cone was kinda cool. I actually trained him to evolve because he had 535 stat total equaling the starters so I figured he woild be good but I was wrong
Jynx looks like a mix between a Ganguro girl and Woo from the Ultraman series
During the pokémon r/g leak there's a pokémon directly based of Woo
I really like klefki because, I don’t know if this is true but I swear I heard it, keys in Pokémon were made after klefki. Now that I’mhonestly might not be true but I know for a fact that, and this is a pet peeve of mine, the keys aren’t apart of klefki’s body. People all the time miss see that. When he said one of klefki’s keys look like a car key I l said “yea probably is a literal car key”. The anime helped me with that cause he can unhook himself/herself to steal and add keys to his/her collection. So it like the spiral silver circle that you can add stuff with holes to, I forgot the name of them. Bottom line I enjoy klefki; I used to not because everyone else didn’t.
Not my big headed boy Persian being the thumbnail 🤣 I just love him soooo much
Haha the first time I saw it I was like….wait what?
I don't really understand the hate for object pokémon. I love most of them.
The gear pokémon are kinda lame though. Hagurumon from digimon is a way better design.
The elemental Monkeys would have worked better if the concept were closer to Eevee: starting as a Normal-type, evolvable into 3 different typing. If it was completely optional in the story, they might have been loved.
If not (for balance purpose), they could have pushed to concept further doing a 180 when evolving:
• Simisage as a cursing street thug (speaks evil), becoming Grass/Dark
• Simisear as a noisy bikers (making people hear evil), becoming a polluting Fire/Poison
• Simipour as a sightseer (making people see untold evil), becoming a Water/Psychic.
Hypothesis: Gamefreak have told that many 5G Pokémon wereinspired by 1G Pokémon with a twist, or a nod to some beta Pokémon. For example, _Crocky_ and _Cactus_ made a comeback as the Sandile-line and Maractus. I believe, and this is overstretched, that Simisage, Simisear and Simipour are supposed to be both a nod to Eevee, and the Electabuzz / Magmar / Jynx trio (they used to be a trio in the beta). The energetic Simisage, the smug Simisear, and the girly Simipour fit well for Electabuzz, Magmar and Jynx respectively.
It's actually just pure gameplay reasons more than anything. They exist so that players playing through black and white would have similar experience fighting the first gym which exists to show new players type advantages. Also they are based of the the three wise monkeys which is a concept from Japan and then failing once they evolve. Simisage based off Yankii subculture; IIRC in hindsight they were more know for acting tough and cursing than actually physical violence. Simisear is based off the bōsōzoku know for removing the mufflers off of thier motor cycles causing causing complaints about noise pollution. Simipour based off of Kogal fashion which people assume to be vain and shallow.
I agree with almost all of these, but I can’t understand not liking dedenne. It’s genuinely my favorite Pikachu clone. 🥺 I like it far more than plusle and minun, Morpeko, or Togedemaru.
I never understood why people have a problem with Voltorb. It’s just Pokémon’s take on an RPG mimic.
Yeah Voltorb is great
Lack of nuance. You tend to get that with midwit fans.
right, I think it’s funny that people criticize it for “just being a pokeball” as if that wasn’t the point + as if pokeballs were real world objects 😭
Pretty sure Probopass also pulls inspiration from those magnet kids games where you pull iron filings around a screen to draw stuff (like mustaches).
This is probably true too. I just liked discovering how more of it was based off of a compass than I thought
It really is nice to stan an underdog. Especially a grass type subpar in stats, I get you.
Maractus, the world may forget you, but you‘ll always dance happily in the minds of us few
Voltorb: I have to mostly agree. I'm not Voltorb's biggest fan by any means, but while it may be simplistic, it's not simply due to laziness like some people like to claim. The whole point of the Voltorb line was to make what's basically the Pokemon equivalent of a Mimic, which is a very common enemy type in a lot of games. Their design made it easy to justify using them like this as their overworld sprites look identical to item balls. It's not a good design in a vacuum, but it fits the role it was designed for.
Binacle: I don't think it looks creepy, just ugly. And not ugly-cute, just ugly-ugly.
Intellion: While I do agree that Game Freak could cool it on the archetypes for starter designs, that doesn't necessarily mean the archetype-based starters are automatically bad designs by default. I'm not the biggest fan of Intellion but I don't hate it either, I like the super-spy styling but I think it's way too slender (seriously, where are its everything? It's practically a stickman).
Aromatisse: In addition to being kinda awkward-looking, Aromatisse was also a huge letdown. When people first saw Spritzee, a LOT of them really bought into its bird-like appearance and mask being a reference to Plague Doctors, and predicted that its evolution would play even further into that archetype. Instead, we got a literal walking powder puff.
Trubbish: This is one that really doesn't deserve the hate - the design is what I'd describe as "ugly-cute", which goes well with its lore of basically being a friendly garbage collector in Pokemon form, picking up litter and keeping the routes clean. Garbodor is a lot more ugly-ugly, but I feel like Trubbish has its charm. Unfortunately, it got released in Gen 5, which was the generation that got slammed hard for its designs due to oddballs like Heatmor and inanimates like the Vanillux line (even though a majority of Gen 5's designs were actually quite creative).
Probopass: This one's just comical-looking, not necessarily bad. People who unironically hate this one have no sense of humor.
Dedene: Honestly, this really shouldn't be on lists ranking worst Pokemon _designs,_ as it is cute and it does kinda invoke Raichu's appearance which is always a plus in my book (Raichu > Pikachu, fite me). The issue with Dedene is more just the fact that it's _yet another Pikaclone._ Pikachu is just Pikachu, Maril was neat since it was a different type altogether, Pichu introduced Baby Pokemon (which, to be fair, was kind of a pointless mechanic), Plusle and Minun were designed to show off double battles, Pachirisu is known for having won a world championship and Emolga has a neat design at least and exists to show off switch moves like U-Turn and Volt Switch which had been introduced that generation. But Dedene is just there, and it's the same story with every Pikaclone afterwards.
Simisear: I'm not a big fan of any of the elemental monkeys but I don't find their designs bad enough to justify putting them on a bottom 15 - they're bland and uninspired but not outright horrible. I think what really hurts them, though, is that the game _forces_ an elemental monkey on you as a tutorial on type advantage, since the first gym in Unova always puts you up against a type that your starter is weak against (also in the form of an elemental monkey) - and then they turn out to be absolute garbage for the rest of the game.
Bruxish: THIS is a Pokemon that is outright horrible. Its design is way too busy, and WHY THE FUCK DOES IT HAVE HUMAN LIPS?!?! The eyelashes don't bother me but the lips? Just... why? I don't mind fish Pokemon but this thing's just bad.
Vanillux Line: Now, THIS is a good example of what happens when Game Freak goes too far. Its design is overdone and honestly doesn't even look like it fits in with any of the other Pokemon. The facial design in particular makes me think it's from Dragon Quest - it's very DQ slime-like, actually, and Vanillite actually looks like it could have been some sort of "frost slime" or something like that.
Mr. Mime: Don't let your children around this thing. Although, it does have one saving grace - back in the early days of the TCG it was a MONSTER.
Luvdisc: Another one I don't necessarily like but don't necessarily hate either. It's simple, so while it doesn't look especially good it also doesn't look really that bad. The problem with Luvdisc isn't its design, it's its purpose. Its one purpose is to be caught in large quantities for Heart Scales. The background lore for it is actually kinda heartwarming, though - no pun intended. Also, Kissing Gouramis are awesome and if you're interested in aquarium-keeping and have the space for the necessary tank I strongly recommend them.
Klink: I actually kinda like them. I'm really into mechanics and the Klinklang line hits that mark for me. However, there's one issue with them that's kinda irksome - The game makes a big deal about catching one, only to reward you with little more than a pat on the back if you do.
Jynx: One correction, Jynx isn't actually based on the Yuki-Ona, though I can forgive the misconception based on its ice typing. There's actually another yokai that is far better fitting for Jynx's lore - the Yama-Uba, an old crone who lives on a snowy mountaintop, but particularly the depiction of the one from the Noh drama _Yamauba, Dame of the Mountain,_ which was know to enjoy dancing and could entrance people with her widely swaying dance steps - much like how Jynx can hypnotically entice others to dance with it. We didn't get a proper Yuki-Ona Pokemon until Froslass. Honestly, Jynx is a Pokemon I like mostly for the lore and background. Its design is iffy but it has some of the best background lore of any first-gen Pokemon.
Klefki: If you think this one gets a lot of hate, just imagine how bad it would be if Klefki had been introduced just one generation earlier. Also, I think part of the hate is because of how good (and thus how annoying) it was as a status/disruption Pokemon in competitive play when X and Y first came out. Klefki gets Prankster as an ability, which gives its status moves priority. So if your opponent is running one on their team, you know that your opponent is going to be able to get a free reflect or magic coat, or hit you with a toxic or thunder wave. And since it also has relatively decent bulk and great defensive typing, chances are it will get away with it and live to do it again.
Honorable Mentions Short List:
Stunfisk: This is my least favorite. Hands down.
Garbodor: I already mentioned this one with Trubbish, it just loses its charm when it evolves.
Muk: Is made of toxic sludge. Ash's likes to give hugs. How is that kid not dead?
Exploud: Just a bit too busy.
Alolan Dugtrio: And I say HEEEYEAAAYEAAAYEAAAH! HEEEYEAAAYEAAAAH! I say hey! What's goin' on!
Alolan Persian: I can haz cheezburger? ...Yeah, Alolan Dugtrio and Alolan Persian are memes in Pokemon form.
I can't recall where, but I've heard it speculated that the trio of Jynx, Magmar, and Electabuzz were inspired by three kaiju from Ultraman that took place in a season of that show that had something conceptually similar to Pokemon going on. I've never watched anything Ultraman-related, but I think that it's worth mentioning as a counterpoint to the relatively obscure Western origins that have been posited as alternative explanations to the ganguro theory for Jynx's origin.
Very interesting. They really are like an unofficial trio too. Kinda too bad Jynx never got an evolution then. Magmar is actually my least favorite of the three
Aww, man. Klefki's my favorite gen 6 pokemon. I'm just glad my favorite gen 1 pokemon, Muk, was left off the list. "Inanimate object with a face" is my favorite pokemon trope. Pokemon can't get simple enough - it's the overly complicated designs that I don't like.
I want to preface that none of this is targeted at Paraspectre as that would be shooting the messenger as it were, I’m just giving my thoughts on the weird complaints people have that I don’t understand personally.
I’m surprised more gen 1 lines didn’t make the list for the same reason as the vanillite klink and voltorb lines. We have grimer and muk, doduo and dodrio, diglett and dugtrio, magnemite and magneton, or clefairy and clefable. I’m not even saying I dislike all of these gen 1 pokemon, but it’s the same argument given for the hate of trubbish or klefkey or vanilitte as if it was only after gen 1 that they got lazy and made the same pokemon 2-3 times but slightly different. Gen 1 has a lot of bad and a lot of good designs, but all the tropes are still there. And to clarify some of the pokemon I said like the magnemite line are among my favorites, especially with magnezone in gen 4. My point was that it can still be seen as lazy as it is just 3 magnemites.
Interesting that the non electric type rodents like Marill didn’t make the list. It’s one of my favorite pokemon, but it was the first pikachu clone unless you count pichu. I think it tells me that making non electric rodents that look like pikachu might be a natural next step.
I also don’t really understand the hate for non animal pokemon when people also get mad about lovedisc looking too much like a fish? Do you want animals or not?? You can’t say it’s not animal enough and then get mad if they make an animal, come on people. Like pidgey has the issues of klink and lovedisc on that it’s the same bird 3 times and it’s just a normal bird, but you don’t see too much pidgey line hatred. It feels hypocritical to me at least
The least appealing designs to me are when the two extremes, human features, and just an animal, don’t mix well in any way. A great example on this list was Bruxish. It has a human face on a normal fish. Or Binacle which just slaps a human face on a couple of barnacles. It feels lazy, uncomfortable to look at, and just unappealing personally.
And of course taste is subjective so if you like any pokemon on the list then that’s totally fine and cool. I really don’t have strong opinions about most of the pokemon listed. My least favorite starter is chestnaught and that line did not make the list, so it goes to show that personal opinion isn’t objective.
Nobody is going to read this and it’s more for me to compile my thoughts, but nevertheless I thought I’d share.
I wholly agree. Overly humanoid features on Mons are among my least favourite. Although in saying that I have a dislike for some of the timeless classics, and love some of the less appreciated guys for my own reasons. Can't please everyone and that's cool.
Bruxish is unnerving too.
"when the two extremes, human features, and just an animal, don’t mix well in any way."
100% agreed. I think that's why Gen 1 gets a pass, the pokemon there look more animal than human while later gens start mixing the two more.
I've always loved the whole "Jackie Chan/Bruce Lee becoming Pokemon (Hitmonchan/Hitmonlee)"
Voltorb was originally designed as a mimic for an rpg without treasure chests, and I think it deserves more credit for that.
As a player of the game (having not watched the anime in so long), I grow attached to any Pokémon on my team and have come to appreciate a lot of uglies just because of our “experiences together”
i love weird pokémon, but i understand why people don't like them. i don't dislike any pokémon really, at the most i'm just indifferent to them. of this list, i love: vanilluxe line, klinklang line, garbodor line, mr. mime and the unova monkeys. and like: voltorb line, luvdisc, dedenne and klefki.
Luvdisc should evolve into alomamola such a shame
Agreed.
People always seem to miss that its just a JRPG mimic u know the treasure chests that are a trap and attack you? Items are found in pokeballs, so that's what voltorb is. The pokemon world's Mimic
Most of these weren't that surprising... But Dedenne really caught me off-guard.
I might be the only dude who looks forward to the Great Value Pikachu every generation.
So pokemon fans have no sense of humor I see
There's something I realized about Jynx. Let's ignore the humanoid and controversy of the design. I think Jynx does a poor job of representing the types it has. There is very little to suggest it's a Psychic type, and even less to tell you it's part Ice. If you showed it to someone new to Pokemon and asked them what type they think it is I wonder what they'd guess.
That’s a very good point. Dark seems like a good guess, but that didn’t even exist then. I feel like Normal would be the go-to
What I hate about inteleon is that they could have done a much different design. Since it's crying a lot as a baby and has a goth style middle stage. I wish they would've done a Shakespeare theme for intelleon. A water/ghost sad lizard representing Shakespeare tragedies with it holding a skull. When they said they were doing British culture as the theme I was hoping they would've done Shakespeare but they didn't. Intelleon doesn't go with the other two in the Evo line.
Side note: one of my friends, her favorite Pokémon is Klink.
But see, we kinda get why Sobble becomes Intel eon. Lockstin thought of the idea that because Sobble was a shut in, they became a secret agent because they know how people keep secrets as they did too. Plus it make sense because of how famous James Bond is in the U.K, so having a James Bond based Pokémon as a starter in a region based off the U.K makes sense.
I actually like Timbur, but I am not really a fan of the design path the evolutions went with.
As for Simisear, I actually like it, and either Simisage or Simipour would probably be in my top 10 pokemon from Gen 5. I think part of the problem was that Japan held an official popularity contest that Simisear scored dead last in, but said contest had the prize being that the winning pokemon would get a special mystery gift version distributed, meaning quite a lot of people voted for either competitive or rare pokemon (for reference, the top 10 were Greninja, Arceus, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Genesect, Rayquaza, Zygarde, Charizard, and Melloetta). The elemental monkeys, on top of not being the most popular, were also super easy to get your hands on, and not the most competitive, so they as a whole didn't do well, with Simisear doing worst of all. This lead to the idea that Simisear being an unpopular or "bad" pokemon, and thus it crops up a disproportionate amount of times on sites listing the worst pokemon, when in my opinion at least, it isn't a particularly offensive pokemon, at least compared to Druddigon (Who I personally like, but I will freely admit it's color scheme is a hot mess).
4:20 That's because "worst design lists" and other listicles generally aren't made by actual fans or members of a given community, and rather by people looking to make a quick clickbait article without any real depth or breadth of understanding of the subject matter. Most people at least are ok with Voltorb if not outright like it, for the reasons you gave. It actually makes sense that a pokemon might evolve to look like something else as a survival trait, as a form of natural camouflage. It's a simple design, but simple doesn't mean bad, and while it may be "just" a pokeball with eyes, a pokeball is already an interesting object that doesn't exist in real life, it's already a rather catchy, interesting design.
But the kind of person who makes these lists just goes, looks for designs that to them seem boring, and toss it on the list. Maybe there'll be some that the community has made enough noise about to penetrate wider consciousness so they end up there too, like Trubbish and Klefki, sure, but ultimately i don't think much thought or critical thinking goes into lists like these. They exist to get people to click the link, not to be informative or valuable.
I definitely don’t disagree but I wasn’t really trying to discredit them, nor was I trying to use them as gospel. I just wanted to look into the origins of “the worst Pokémon” and googling 10-11 sites seemed like a good platform to go off of
@@Paraspectre I'm aware. But my overly literal mind _required_ me to answer why the list had Voltorb despite no one commenting to give their suggestion listed it.
Luvdisc is my wife's favorite Pokémon.
And while Klefki isn't my favorite overall, it's my favorite one from gen 6. I think it's really creative and cute. I actually really like some from this list, even if I do dislike many.
I like a lot of these too, especially Voltorb
I like Klefki, but I think it would have been better if it were like Spinda and had a numerous amount of keys programmed in.
It feels really weird that there are the same 4 keys on every Klefki despite the fact that we know the keys are not part of it's body, and just something it likes collecting.
I never thought of this but you’re exactly right. Why aren’t there different or more keys? It kinda cheapens the whole concept even more now. EVERY Klefki stole somebody’s car key? Come on.
@@Paraspectre And it's literally in the gen with Flabébé who has different models for each type of flower it can get, since the flowers are, again, not part of its body, but they couldn't do it for poor Klefki.
I think people hate Aromatisse because it looks like a drag queen
I honestly never thought that about it
Fun fact I always name my Sobbles James Pond. Idk I thought it was a fun water type pun on James Bond
There actually are some James Pond games. I’ve never played them though
No one seems to mention that the whole point of voltorb is that it is a classic RPG mimic. All rpgs have them usually as monsters disguised as chests. So having it look like a pokeball to surprise people thinking it is a chest is genius.
It was probably made for the power plant as the whole point of the plant is loads of voltorb disguised as items
Yeah that’s definitely what they we’re going for. Voltorb is pretty cool really
Voltorbs design saw a refresh in hisui but i think itd be so much better if they made it like an eevee where it could evolve into different kinds of pokeballs (possibly typed by the pokemon the ball would traditionally catch)
With Voltorb, the darker top looks like hair and with electrode, the darker bottom half looks like a beard with a bald head so it always seemed the right evolution order to me as a kid
Vanilluxe isn’t my *favorite* , but it is absolutely close to my heart. I love my ice cream elemental
OMG Same the Ice Cream Family is just so cute & way better designed than the other common ice types of Gen 5. Food Pokémon always felt different from random object Pokémon & even then Litwick Family is well designed. I don't get how someone can possibly prefer Cryogonal to Vanilluxe.
@@bookmew1081 I also really like Cryog lmao
I guess it’s because other Pokémon are designed all smooth and nice and then HERES A POLYGON GODDAMNIT
I can understand if other ppl think it’s bland I just like my snowflake
Conkeldurr and Gurdurr even more so look ugly but Timburr has a fantastic design. Pokemon Black was my first game and I kept an unevolved Timburr on my team the whole playthrough and beat the champion with it. He's was less grotesquely veiny and clownish than the others
I’d agree Timburr looks the best. I still don’t like any of them ☺️
I think I may have posted a similar comment already, but I initially liked Timburr but disliked its evolutions. Eventually, Gurdurr ended up growing on me, and I think a major reason for that was because Conquest and Gates to Infinity did a very good job at making art that had Gurdurr be really expressive. I still don't like Conkeldurr, however.
I'm honestly a huge fan of Klefki. I enjoy Fairy types based on literal fae, and the way it battles is the embodiment of a "teehee" playstyle, which I personally enjoy. I wouldn't say it's my number 1 favorite but it's definitely up there.
I dunno, I find it hard to hate a lot of Pokemon, I can appreciate the ideas behind them even if I don't latch on to them. So maybe that's just me.
For sure, which is why I thought this would be a fun video idea. Instead of yelling and hating on Pokémon many people dislike, why not explain where they came from?
In this video I learned that I'm a contrarian, for the most part I like almost all the designs mentioned or at least think they're okay. I love Trubbish and Vanilite, they're so cute. Fuck Barnicle and Barbaricle tho, the eyes on the hands creep me out.
While not my #1 favorite Pokémon, I actually really like Spritzee & Aromatisse. I like Spritzee a bit more, & If I were to have been the one to design it I wouldn’t have gone that exact route. I do however hate how it’s design always features it’s one leg sticking out. Without that leg sticking it, it’s design becomes sooooo much better in my opinion. Shiny Spritzee is one of my all time favorite shinies too, definitely in my top 3 favorite shinies.
Voltorb is a mimic, which is a common enemy type in JRPGs, so I can't really understand why people dislike it. Sure, it's simple, but it looks like a pokeball because overworld items look like pokeballs in the games; you think you're picking up an item but then you get ambushed by a voltorb. It's a game mechanic.
Well today I learned that I must have no taste, because I don't have much issue with pokemon designs, mostly just when something looks super boring, like most fish pokemon
Jynx is probably modled after Yama-uba!, a Japanese yokai
I thought it was based on Ganguro, a style popular in Japan in the 90s?
@@MrSkeltal268 She doesn't really have a "high school girl" design its much more a middle aged woman
I like Kelfkey. It’s cute and mischievous. I don’t have an issue with it
i love klefki its super cute
I don't hate it, but I don't like it either
Wow.... A premiere of a paraspectre video. Just got the notification, let's go!!!!
If this had been focusing on the shinies; shiny Okidogi is the ugliest one in existence.
At least shiny Bruxish is a partial improvement over the original.
Huh, I didn't know that people from Africa were famous for having long, straight blonde hair. You learn something new every day.
I'm sorry, but the whole "Jinx is a racial stereotype of black people" has always rung hollow to me ever since it started back in the day. Do I not like the more humanoid Pokemon in general? Yes. Especially the ones who somehow have "natural" clothing? Yes. But to try and claim it's a racial stereotype due to it's black skin is a heck of a stretch.
And if people claim "It also has big lips!", well so do Smoochum and Bruxish. Are they racial stereotypes of black people, too? Or Snorlax and Skitty, since they could be seen to have "squinty eyes", thus are Asian stereotypes (well, Korean, since this is a Japanese game)? If people try hard enough, they can (and will) find something they can decry as offensive in some manner.
With that rant finally out of my system...
I actually like Voltorb's design since it's intended to be a mimic/treasure chest trap for the player. Though I'm less of a fan of Foongus and Galarian Stunfisk, since hopefully people would be wary of a Pokeball perfectly half-buried in the ground (Voltorb just needs to close it's eyes or be facing away). Then again, why would you just be picking up a random abandoned Pokeball laying on the ground in the middle of nowhere - especially after the first time you ran into one of the aforementioned three Pokemon?
Keep in mind that this is not MY list. These aren’t concepts I made up, I’m simply stating why a large number of people found Jynx to be offensive and why it was on so many worst-of lists. It’s why Jynx was changed from black to purple.
My list would be entirely different from this one. I think Voltorb is pretty cool.
@@Paraspectre Yep. I understand. I even swapped a (generic) 'you' for 'people' just before posting that to ensure it wouldn't be mistaken for ranting specifically at you. It's just the same as people claiming that Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball is a racial stereotype of a black person... happily ignoring that Dragon Ball had ACTUAL black people before him in it who looked nothing like him.
Claiming racism is generally one of the easiest ways to get negative attention slapped onto something and a lot of people (especially companies) will cave to that to avoid the bad press. Probably why Jinx has missed out on getting an evolved form (not that I feel it needs one, but if Electrobuzz and Magmar got one, why not complete the pseudo-trio?).
But this is Pokemon, back to the fun, cool things.
Yeah, Inteleon would definitely work better on it's own, especially since it really doesn't flow from it's pre-evolutions. Cry-baby -> Blue Goth -> James Bond!? lol
@@KnTenshi2 It is strange that Jynx never got an evolved form, especially because it got a baby form.
And yeah, that Sobble line is kind of a mess
Black people don't have big red lips either, but racists caricatures often gave them big red lips ^^
That's the thing about a racist caricature, it does not ressemble the actual thing. Like caicatures of asian people look nothing like asian people!
I don't think Jynx was really a racist design, but it was very close of it, probably by accident, and it's good they modified it at least in the western versions ^^
A lot of the designs people hate the most come from gen 5 it seems. There's a lot of great stuff from that generation, but you also can tell they were stretched thin for design ideas.
I do also wonder if the Luvdisc hate also comes from how unuseable it is in-game.
I agree, I love a lot of Gen 5 designs. Definitely not all winners though
The original gen 5 games also made the risky decision of making the regional pokedex made up of only the new mons. So the bad ones stuck out more. Even Pikachu sat this game out.
And I do get it now as personally gen 9 has a lot of designs that don't quite click with me. But there's so many options in that game for your team that it's easy to not pay attention and just focus on the ones I do like and the old favourites.
@@Superluigi881 It's better to have dex of new mons than to have it filled to the brim with old stuff.
Alot of Klefki hate gotta come from how annoying it was to face in competitive and general online multiplayer.
I didn't "get" Voltorb for a while until I realized he is the Pokemon version of Mimics from traditional RPGs. Once I realized that it wasn't just a trick for the Pokemon series, but that they were building on a foundation of "enemies that disguise themselves as treasure chests," I thought the way Voltorb was designed was brilliant.
Also, it's sad that Inteleon is the only starter on this list. Personally, I'm pretty disappointed with the way every Pokemon starter with the exception of like, Chikorita, Snivy, and Popplio, goes from being cute to being tough-looking. The worst offender to me, though, is Oshawott. I hate that he goes from being a cute bipedal otter to this weird quadrapedal sea lion thing. I actually only just looked up what Samurott's design was based on bc I never really even understood what it was supposed to be. That's how little that design works for it. The only tough/"cool" starter evolutions I like are Inteleon, Venusaur, Feraligatr, and to some extent I don't terribly dislike Blastoise and Cinderace. I do wish they would try to make it so every gen has one starter line that stays cute/pretty the whole way through. It's kind of sad to want to abandon your starting friend just because they grew up awkwardly ;p
So my top 5 favourite pokemon of all time are:
1. Jynx
2. Corsola
3. Bruxish
4. Snubull
5. Chandelure
And 2 of them are on this list 😭
Wow, what a list. But hey, every Pokémon is somebody’s favorite. Chandelure is also one of mine
High-five for another snubbull admirer! I may be biased because its surname matches mine, but dammit if I don't think this li'l fairy pup is the best dog pokémon. And certainly the #1 dog pokémon, growlithe be damned.
I'm pretty neutral on Jynx but I always thought the controversy was dumb. People have a way too america centric viewpoint about racism for content from Japan.
Im american, i agree, americans are completely stupid when it comes to context. Context doesnt exist for like 40% of americans. A lot think american culture is the default way of life. And when it comes to the jynx "controversy", id be willing to bet the 5% of the people offended were black and 95% were those white people that think everything is offensive.
Voltorbs true inspiration is the Japanese legend of tools coming to life on their 100th birthday. The thought of pokeballs that people left in the forest one day started rolling around and shocking people is amazing. Voltorbs always cool with me.
Yeah I think Voltorb gets a bad rap. I think the blue shiny version is even better
I'm so sad I missed the poll! Hopefully I'll see the next one you do. I like smaller channels like this because I feel like everyone's voice matters all that much more
The comments DID influence the standings for sure
I kinda like trubbish it's strangely cute bit also it was suppose to be gen 5's version of mul and grimer it was a reboot of the series in some ways as alot of those gen 5 pokdmon are suppose to be mirror reflections of gen 1 pokemon as well a few others ( timber line is machop, roggenrola is geodude, Zoarock is lucario) I think it was to allow players to feel the feelings they did during gen 1 being forced to use new pokemon while giving a sense of familiarity
Yeah Gen 5 really did feel like a reboot
Vanillite is so cute though :(
Gen 5 had such a weird hit and miss going on with designs. Love a lot of them, but then there are the monkeys, timburr line, and sawk and throh. I don't mind object mons but klink and garbador felt like bad rehashes of magnemite and muk. I do think trubbish is cute though. Always surprised mons like cryogonal don't make these lists its always jarring to see it in the games doesn't look like it belongs as a design at all lol
Origin form Dialga and Palkia are probably my least favorite pokemon designs ever, except maybe Jynx
I honestly believe their is no malicious intent to jynx. Same for Mr Popo in dragon ball. I really think it's just a cultural disconnect.
I agree, I’m sure Jynx was not designed with any racism in mind. But I can also see why some people may find it uncomfortable.
All non Wooper are the worst pokemon design
Are you joking?
Wooper is god tier.
Lickilicky, just why.
One of my biggest issues with probopass is that it looks like an jewish stereotype.
We all forget about the existence of Lickitung and Lickylicky.
Voltorb’s design is great BECAUSE it’s just a poke ball with eyes. It’s a unique spin on an RPG mimic that attacks people looking for treasure.
Exactly, it’s a cool concept. Even better than Electrode..
Voltorb is what is called a "mimic", a common RPG monster that looks like an item and is actually a monster, catching the player by surprise...
I feel that many people who don't understand that just don't understand RPGs in general...
Yeah Voltorb is pretty great
19:32 ah yes, octillery, wailord and malamar, my favourite fish pokemon
I will say that I absolutely love trubbish and garbodor
It's so funny to see so many of my lower-key favorites on this compilation of fan-not-favorites. Dedenne is actually the first Pika clone I liked at all since the original Pikachu, exactly because of its resemblance to Raichu. I actually like Raichu's color scheme quite a bit, but it never felt like it should be the evolution of Pikachu and it was even worse after Pichu came into the picture - now Raichu is the odd one out, because Pichu and Pikachu look quite similar because of their colors while Raichu's jump to orange is just too harsh. Dedenne takes a lot of Raichu's colors and remixes them into a very cute new pokemon that I love as a standalone. I do think it could do without the cheek gimmick (it already has whiskers to fill the space) but on a worst design list? I could never.
Then there's Trubbish. I actually find Trubbish to be quite cute design-wise. I thought the bunny angle was great and it legitimately was new to me that trash backs could look like bunnies. Now I can't unsee it. I don't really like that it evolves into just a bigger version - I think its small rounded form is what made the design work in the first place - but on its own, Trubbish is great. I do get the hangup of "why does it have to have human-made material in it" though. I generally like to see pokemon and humans as life forms that evolved in symbiosis and even when I design my own monsters (not necessarily fakemons, just in general) that's one angle I approach things from. Trubbish and Grimer (and their evos) both go negative with this, saying "these only exist because humans pollute the environment" and adding human-made material to it just makes sense conceptionally.
Then, Vanillite. I absolutely agree with the sentiment that it didn't need to have 3 stages. I actually kinda love Vanillite purely in design, but it's another one of these where I think the round and small shape made it work. I liken it to Diglett and Dugtrio - I like the base of Diglett quite a bit, because it's very simple but very cute. It evolves once and doesn't stray too far from its base, so I like Dugtrio by proxy. Vanillish and Vanilluxe though... not only do they double down on the idea by being 2 extra stages, they also shed all of the nice form factor Vanillite had and that makes them less appealing. Again the concept itself doesn't bother ME personally too much, but the "coincidence" of them looking like icecream cones is rather distracting at times. I like to think humans came up with icecream after discovering the pokemon, personally.
Then lastly, Mr. Mime. But only in the right circumstances. The original Sugimori artwork you started the section with is actually the reason I like the design. Its body and head are perfectly round like juggling balls and give it a nice balanced shape while the four-fingered hands are purposefully more like frog or gecko-feet (there's species that can stick on glass and such even) instead of human hands, which makes it work much better imo. The head is also smaller than the body there, unlike many of its iterations, which gives it a bit of a snowman vibe and adds to the unique shape. Then, the vibrant colors - the red, white and dark blue fit together well, while the pink of the face and limbs is subdued. Most of these features are lost in other depictions, where Mr. Mime often has a more "human-shaped" head and less vibrant colors (the balls are usually a strange pink which looks bad imo). Does it look too human? In the context of "pokemon can be pets", yes. But I thought the original version of Mr. Mime looked enough like a weird gremlin to be okay and got ruined along the way. By the way, Mr. Mime is one of the few pokemon that I think was translated incredibly well into the modern pokemon 3D models. 90% of the time I find them off-putting and impression-less but Mr. Mime moves like a marionette and it's absolutely amazing - it's so unnerving but perfectly captures the pantomime inspiration.
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Sorry for the long comment, I just reaaaaaally love rambling about creature design. Sidenote, I don't understand how Klefki could make first place. It's squarely in the middle of pokemon design for me. Like, yeah, it's just a bunch of keys, but it feels so inoffensive and conceptionally sound (fairies ARE strongly associated with mischief) that I'm just surprised it beat out the commonly cited ones like Mr. Mime and Jynx. Interesting.
Trubish is a special pokemon cause they completed the waste in the world.. land,sea and air.. we started with muk. He is the sea pollution.. then we have weezing.. he is the sky/air pollution.. so when the brought gabador in that was the land pollution.. so we have as I figure. Oil for water. Smoke for air. And trash for land..
I do really like this and it’s something I didn’t even bring up
Honestly, I love quite a few pokemon that people call ugly. garbodor, Mr mime, the vaniluxe line, the magmortar line, and so on. Heck, Mr mime, garbodor, and vaniluxe are my favorites or second favorites of their types. I also LOVE the simi trio for some reason. Even simisear, I love all three of my monkey children equally. It's like there are these pokemon people love to hate, but I just can't hate them for like, any reason.
Having a theme doesnt mean they all behave the same
Every Pokémon has diverse personalities
The point of the franchise is that they are your buddies your best friend and life long partner
My unpopular Pokémon opinion: there are no ugly Pokémon. People are just assholes.
I am with you!(:
I was not too surprised by most of the Pokemon on this list but Inteleon making it was odd. I thought it was pretty cool and the fact it has actual finger guns only sweetens the concept.Also very surprised that Stunfisk did not make it. I am not a big fan and felt for sure it would be in the top 5 at least.
Galar stinfisk: high tier
Stunfisk: is an insult
Right? Inteleon is nowhere near my least favorite starter. 🤷🏻♂️
The conkeldurr line looks stupid and has stupid names. If they didn't have use in the meta they'd be universally hated.
Blows my mind anyone likes these designs.
Some of the ugliest designs Pokémon has to offer
100%. On top of looking horrible, the whole Conkeldurr line is probably the only one that actively makes me angry because of just how horribly uninspired it is, literally just ripping their own earlier line off from Machop.
Like, at least with the basic early route birds/rodents and the electric mice those were all just recurring things they always did, Machop never had a recurring expy in other generations. They even literally had it finish evolving by trading too. Just awful all around.
Klefki also has a clef lip
Blow-by-blow video responses below for those who enjoy verbal vomit:
You're definitely not the only person I've heard have beef with the 'urrs. It definitely seems their giant veins and weird proportions rub a lot of people the wrong way. I actually don't mind them myself, I kind of like the badass grandpa thing conkeldurr's got going on, though gurdurr is pretty freaky, and the carnie strongman reference with its clownish look is a bit too isolated in its middle stage to really come off all that justified.
I never thought voltorb deserved to be put on the poorly-designed lists, just because it's simply designed doesn't mean it's poorly designed, it's basically Pokémon's resident mimic, and has some pretty fun subtle references to its electric typing. Not to mention, spontaneous explosions are fun.
Binacle... Yeah, I guess I can say it's hard to genuinely like it, even if its design did have some thought put into it. I guess not every pokémon has to be particularly lovable, or even cool, and I guess binacle's crabby crustacean vibes prevent it from at least being charmingly dopey like dunsparce or lickitung or something. But still, I wouldn't say its being unappealing made its design bad, as you said, barnacles aren't all that appealing to begin with, so it stands to reason that neither is binacle.
I've always thought inteleon was really cool, and surprised at how many people complained about it. I guess it suffers less from being a poorly-designed pokémon than it does from arguably being a poorly-designed starter in a poorly-designed evolution line. You don't hear too many giving machamp or hariyama beef for being wrestlers, as a player has the option to catch them or leave them, but once you make someone's starter automatically become a wrestler, or other sort of human character archetype, it could rub people the wrong way, especially if the pokémon didn't originally embody a human character that much, a problem which is pretty prominent with inteleon, as drizzile really strains to connect the two other forms with its emo vibe trying to embody both sobble's misery and inteleon's cryptic style.
I've said before that aromatisse has grown on me, and that's mainly due to my fond memories of watching Get Smart with my mum, and aromatisse's combination of doctor and showgirl characteristics making it remind me of Doctor Simon. I still like spritzee more, but I'm also probably one of the few who doesn't fault aromatisse for not being plague-doctor-y enough. I always found spritzee's plague doctor inspiration charmingly subtle, and aromatisse carries that on reasonably well.
Trubbish, like voltorb, always seemed undeserving of the bad-design label to me, as it's pretty well-designed as a garbage monster, people just seem to think a garbage monster is for some reason a bad concept. I mean, is it gross? Yeah, of course, but it's a poison type, it's supposed to be. The fact that it's based on something artificial doesn't seem to be all that just grounds to hate it either, as gen 1 already had magnemite, and banette is also basically a trash pokémon, and no one gives it grief. Trubbish and garbodor aren't even among my favourite pokémon, but I really don't think their reputation is fair.
Probopass is another one I'd say is more of an unappealing design rather than a bad design, I won't say I was tripping over myself to get one of these when I first saw it, but I thought the idea of upgrading the big-nosed pokémon by giving it a mustache made sense enough, and building on nosepass's magnetic nose with a metal shavings mustache is clever, plus the addition of the hats recently discovered on actual moai was a neat touch.
I'm with you on plusle and minun seeming more like copies of pichu (they always looked more like pichu than pikachu to me). Don't see why dedenne is being singled out, it's at least got some neat antenna whiskers. I guess it must be mostly contextual, as you say, even if the pikachu archetype was well codified at this point, so it seems hard to fault dedenne for basically doing its job of being gen 6's resident pikachu lookalike.
Simisear... yeah, I think this one may be an actual dud, as it doesn't really come off as meant to be a joke. I've heard it suggested that each monkey's evolved form is meant to represent a failure of holding up to the value the unevolved form represents, with simisear being a biker that enjoys the rumble of its motor a bit too much, so maybe the evolved forms are supposed to be unappealing for that reason? Though even in that case, simisear seems to miss the mark of cocky biker and come across more flamboyant instead, so even knowing the thought behind it, it's still pretty awkward.
Bruxish has never been my favourite either, I guess its idea is meant to embody drag show energy. Not sure how big the overlap is with Pokémon players and drag enthusiasts, maybe it's too small to leave room for much bruxish love. I've always been a bit confused by how its level-up moveset and just about its entire dex entry seem to completely ignore the whole glam thing it's got going on (looking at its game data, you wouldn't get a sense of it apart from one, maybe two of its abilities, and its Violet entry), but it seems it was meant to contrast the likes of luvdisc by being "pretty" without coming off as passive, and still having a strong tough element to its design. In any case, it kind of does feel as if its flamboyance is supposed to be over-the-top, so I don't think I can fault bruxish that much, even if I'm not all that fond of it.
I've always kind of liked the vanillite line myself, vanillite is just a cute li'l ice cream friend, if cherubi can be a cute food friend, so can vanillite. Vanilluxe is pretty cleverly designed at least, with the twin heads referencing double-scoops/banana splits in a neat way with the icy bits doubling as looking like seasoning. Vanillish is probably my least favourite of the 3, but it bridges the other 2 pretty well. I guess a lot dislike these guys because they find their origin silly, but again, I don't think they're really meant to be taken all that seriously in the first place, so bad design doesn't seem like a worthy label here.
Just like you with Mr. Mime, I definitely came to appreciate it more after its getting to be in the funniest scene of Detective Pikachu, though I didn't really fault it for being weird before, as it was pretty clearly meant to be bizarre.
Luvdisc, I actually really like, and I have fond memories riding around Hoenn on the one I had traded from my cousin. As with voltorb, I'd say that simple isn't always bad, and in any case, it's better than the Valentine-heart fakémon I recall making up as a kid, so there's that.
Jynx is kind of in the same boat as bruxish, it has elements that seem to suggest prettiness without the design itself actually looking in any way appealing, though with jynx, it's even harder to even tell whether or not that was on purpose. I remember not liking it earlier on, but its looping to coming off so-bad-it's-good with time. Though I guess it's hard to blame anyone not fond of it.
I'd say at least Alolan dugtrio makes sense, being meant to embody the classic rich-person-on-an-island-vacation look with a reference to volcanic glass tying in with both the ground type and the volcanic island setting. Seems to be pretty clever to me, and I kind of feel as if the design is supposed to look a bit silly, so I can't really fault them. Persian, I dunno, though, I guess the idea was an inbred-to-the-point-of-being-deformed pedigree pet, but I can't help but think the developers went a bit overboard with it, especially considered how overshadowed persian is by meowth to begin with.
Well, Aromatisse is my #1 favourite Pokémon so 🤷♂️ at least someone appreciates it
Dedene is ok they needa relax
All pikachu clones are cute enough
It’s almost like a running joke now
As a Dutch person I have a correction for your explanation on Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).
He's not the Dutch Santa Claus, but actually the servant to the Dutch Santa counterpart, Sinterklaas. That makes the situation even worse, with slavery concerns and all that, because there are usually several of them involved.
The racism concern didn't come up much in the past, until the last 10 years or so. Now, a new type of Pete has been introduced: the Roetveegpiet (Soot Pete): it ditches the hoop earrings, red lips and black face paint, in return the face paint is much lighter and applied haphazardly to resemble soot.
Ahh very interesting, thank you for clarifying that. It was a little confusing to get the real explanation in my research, so I apologize if I wasn’t completely accurate there
@@Paraspectre No sweat! The point was that it's a very prominent and controversial blackface character who's also involved with a holiday. That point came across perfectly.
One thing to remember is that these lists often can't be used to represent all Pokemon fans. Because frankly, most fans aren't likely to make lists on the site... and Pokemon just has way too many fans...
Often, haters will be more vocal than non-haters...
This is true, but I had to go off of something. And I DID factor in comments I got from a post I made to concoct this list
I associated Gen 7's Pikaclone with Mimikyu so much I forgot Togedemaru existed. I like the Vanillite line, and Smogon summed Luvdisc up perfectly in their analysis for it in Gen 4:
"We'll take a generic Water-type, give it crummy stats EVERYWHERE except for Speed, give him a trait that doubles his Speed in the rain and the option to use Agility and call it a day. Luvdisc is great if you're playing with Battle Timeout, because its mere presence should cause your opponent to laugh at it for so long that you win the match."
Here is my defense of Simisear:
he's basically a vibe, just a dude hanging out and chilling. He's the embodiment of "oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯", drifting through life as if it was a lazy river. And that's absolutely a way of life I can get behind.
Probopass is there because it looks like a stereotype.
I cant unsee it and i feel awful
I love Bruxish's design. Unfortunately it doesn't stand out, comes after halfpoint of its game, so it gets forgotten.
I saw a video that explains that voltorb, electrode, foongus & amoongus are supposed to be "mimic" and like pkmn is kind of an rpg thats when I changed my mind
Right, that’s why I view them as their way of surviving. I really like Voltorb and Foongus.
@@Paraspectre also the few conections between pokemon and a ful rpg
Noooooooo...! Trubbish is awesome!