An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew vs Pokemon - DAILY UPDATES!

[Lady Door]

The hat is actually feathers. What the heck.

Also that pom-pom growing out of its butt, under its tail - dare I ask how that's attached? Does Honchkrow fly? CAN he, with these malformed wings and tail?

Maybe he'll just use his wizard beard to conjure up some teleportation.

[AndrewRogue]

Glameow: As far as kitties go, I like a lot of what this one has going for it. Its a pretty decent cat shape that manages to be distinct. The way the fluffs on it are kinda bulbous are weird though (especially the ones near the neck and the tail). The colors are good, but I wish the white was on its body somewhere instead of just the adorable little boots. The eyelids being pink is really weird. And kinda gross. That tail though. I have no idea what is going on with that tail. Like, none. I dunno. There's some decent stuff here, but the weird and bad is weird and bad. 2/5

Purugly: Sure. 1/5

There is just, so much wrong going on here. The super weird proportions. The way its coloring makes it look like its tearing. Those horrifying hand-ears with extra purple. Those mutilated whiskers. But the most baffling thing to me is why did its tail fluff merge with its torso?

[AndrewRogue]

Chingling: This is high on the list of pokemon I never remember existing. Why the fuck would you make a pre-evo to Chimecho of all things? Like, the existence of this thing is way weirder than anything else. That said, this is pretty high on that meh object scale. And it is made a bit worse by the fact that is is basically just a bell with tiny hands and feet instead of at least being some weird psychic floating bell thing. The mouth is kinda cute with the bell elements though. Like, I actually don't hate this design. But still. I think we can afford a downgrade for being what it is. 2/5

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Purugly's panhandle face makes me want to slap things, ngl.

[AndrewRogue]

I blame Sekiro.

Stunky: It's face is a butt. 1/5

Skuntank: They really went cat-like with the design here. Uh. Colors are fine. It is mostly just boring, with a pretty simple round body, no real ornamentation, and a tail draped over most of it. Say what you will about Stunky's doorstop body design, it is at least interesting-ish looking? This is just another mostly ugly cat design. And it still has a butt for a face, it is just less obvious. 2/5

Also, is eyeshadow this gen's thing? I feel like I've seen it a lot this gen.

[Grefter]

it grew a tail long enough to try and cover its arse face and it evolves to lose 2/3's of the facebooty.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I'm almost certain the buttface design on the skunk line is deliberate in that "eleven-year-olds will find this genius" kind of way.

[AndrewRogue]

I'm very bad at daily.

Bronzor: I don't have a lot to go here with. Bronzor is fine. The color is nice. Patterning is fine without being overwhelming. But he's pretty boring. The design on the back is a bit weird too. *SHRUG* 3/5

Bronzong: I really feel like I should have more to say considering my lazy lately, but... yeah. I don't have a lot here either. I think the darker shade looks better than the lighter shade, so losing so much of that kind of sucks. The tooth/mouth pattern is goofy. Not sure why the eyes changed color. I dunno. He's just TOO bell like. Like, remove the eyes and that's what I'm pretty sure he is. Patterns are all fine and everything but it just doesn't ring (heh heh) to me as a pokemon. Not the most awful, though. 2/5

[AndrewRogue]

Bonsly: Is a pretty decent baby pokemon. Carries most of the design through well, is fairly cute on his own, and I actually like him better than his evo. I dislike the pot/diaper design, though. It probably deserves some credit for being cute, but it is one step over for me. I also wish there was maybe a bit more texturing down on its lower half to break up the sea of dull brown? Still. 3/5, maybe bordering on the next rank?

[Lady Door]

Bonsly

I raise you one

[Captain K]

Like, how do grape dude's boots even work?

[VySaika]

Bonsly deserves better than to be compared to terrible grape child.

[AndrewRogue]

That is harsh, Ashley.

Mime Jr.: Well. He's better than Mr. Mime because he is way less creepy pedophile looking? Though the kinda balding look is still pretty bad. The cupcake body is kinda interesting though. I don't know why they are doing that but hey, I'm not gonna complain about anything that looks less terrible than Mr. Mime. Clown noses are terrible. Overall it just really ends up with too much of a human look for me. Whereas something like Gardevoir at least ends up looking like a weird fey thing, Mime Jr... doesn't. So for all that it is less abysmal than its evo... it still sucks. 1/5

[AndrewRogue]

Sorry, I have been a lazy butt.

Happiny: I think the problem with this gen's baby pokemon is that they really went in on looking childish. Happiny's little pony tail here, for example. And the diaper/pouch. That said, I kinda actually like Happiny? Like, it does capture a younger Chansey pretty well, and the idea of the pouch shrinking is kind of neat. Though it is way redder than its evo, but hey. Pokemon evolution color plot. I dunno. I kinda like the pony tail, but then I look at it and go "this is just a 4-5 year old girl's hair except made of fleshy tendrils" and then I'm not sure what I'm doing with my life. 3/5

[Grefter]

That is harsh, Ashley.

That is like the whole damn point.

High fives to Ashley as always.




Happiny is a baby egg pokemon that is carrying around a baby egg.   That is some Carolinas shit right there.

[AndrewRogue]

Chatot: Is not happy about this bullshit. Kind of an incoherent design. I mean the sound idea is there and present, but I think it is sort of overdone with just like. You know. The musical note head and the metronome tail that don't really do anything else at all. The bird body is... fine? The colors are all over the place, but I guess that happens with birds. I do wish the body were more feathery looking stuff outside the ruffled collar? I dunno. Like I said, the design is sort of incoherent with nothing really combining or going together well. 2/5

Spiritomb: You know, I always kind of assumed his ghostly body was spherical, not flat. That's weird. Otherwise this is... okay? His facial design is a bit goofy, but it works for weird spoopy dark ghost I guess. I dunno. He's fine. Emerging from the rock is kind of cool? 3/5

[Lady Door]

If people would be less dumb, I wouldn't have to be here tearing things apart, would I. (I don't anyway, but I feel a calling.)

--

Chatot and Spiritomb both feel like cartoons more than any other Pokemon I can think of so far. Maybe it's because of the weird 2D angles that make them look best? And yes, I DO distinguish Pokemon from cartoons thank you very much.

I mean, Chatot's got some serious side eye going on a la . But it also has a lot of highlighting? And a ridiculous ruff/head note thing that is too "this is an animal, only WaCkY" to live outside a cartoon.

And Spiritomb has irregular edges and neon colors and unclear facial features. He's just begging to be a completely non-corporeal mist beast. Apropos of nothing, this is what you get when you image search "ghost rock":

[Grefter]

That is a pic of the band Ghost.  I don't know much of their stuff, but what I do is pretty dope.

Edit - Linking because I think they are just the kind of theatrical stuff I know Andy enjoys in some symponic metal.

[AndrewRogue]

Gible: What an adorably pudgy little landshark. I actually kinda like him. The hammerhead portion feels pointless and kinda ugly though. The rest of it really is shockingly cute as you think about him tearing stuff up. He's so tiny and angry! Colors and head-fin are pretty okay. It really is that hammerhead that ruins him. Also he could probably use more teeth. Still, I'm feeling positive. 4/5

Gabite: The stupid hammerheads are still there and still suck. He also loses the cool headfin. And concentrates all his weight into his belly area. The little arm claws are okay as are the arm fins. He just looks a bit too awkward. Which sort of works for the transition between the chubby and goofy Gible and the more ferocious and athletic Garchomp. But it doesn't do Gabite's design any good. 2/5

Garchomp: And suddenly yellow. Honestly the coloring remains pretty decent. The single claws look better. The spikes are kinda stupid, but the overall shape is more sleek and speaks better to the super fast landshark. The hammerhead stuff is still dumb, but the head is better shaped to complement it. And while the headfin did not return, the flatter, broader shape of the head works fine without it, unlike Gabite. And the nicked backfin is decently fitting. I also think it might have been better looking without the tail having three points and looking more authentically shark-like. So, in honor of that... 3/5

[Captain K]

[AndrewRogue]

Sorry. Been lazy.

Muchlax: Pretty decent baby, overall. I think the head patterning could have been better to match Snorlax, since otherwise the idea of Muchlax growing up and out kinda explains a lot of the remaining coloration and patterning. The fur skirt is a little weird but it actually works pretty well with the aforesaid qualities of growing up and out of it later. The biggest problem is really just that hard divide of color on its face. Ultimately it is as good as a Snorlax, so I guess I'll score them the same. 3/5.

[Lady Door]

Munchlax is cute but also super weird in the Ultra Sun & Moon anime. He's small so the animators are like, "Let's have him dog-pile on top of the other Pokemon and humans!" but then he's dense like a motherfucking baby blackhole, like having a 2-foot-tall toddler weighing like an obese adult would not break bones and/or organs.

[AndrewRogue]

Rilou: Everyone else's favorite furry friend. Almost. Uh. He's... okay, I guess? I dunno. He does an okay job of not being like, just an anthro puppy? The colors are okay, though I'm not really sure what to do with the lumps on the forearms. And not that I've been staring at his torso I see that it kinda looks like a dick and balls so I'm not sure what to do anymore. That aside the ways his legs connect are kinda weird, as are the... secondary ears? Whichever ones the ones attached to his mask are. Actually this is getting actively worse the more I put it together and am starting to think this really needed one more draft to smooth it out. There's just a LOT of disjointed stuff going on. That tail is kind of stupid and glued on.

Geeze this design really kinda collapses when you look at it. 2/5

Lucario: Everyone else's actual favorite furry friend. Well he fucking looks better than Riolu. The hand and chest spikes are weird and frankly I will never understand why he ends up steel stype off that. The head is good and the ear things being pushed back more like dreads looks WAY better. Still goofy if you get it from behind, but eh. The neck ruffle is cool, though I dislike the arm bands. I legit never noticed how much it looks like he's wearing shorts though. Don't like that. Tail also remains a bit goofy looking. Like, come off the spine, not the ass. That said, I can see the reason people like Lucario? He manages the martial artist look way better than a lot of other pokemon with the visual clothing cues being built more into his body naturalistic than a lot of other fighting pokemon. And that's a good fierce dog head. And they even let the yellow be patchy in some places, which is a design element I feel you see a little less in later pokemon gens (really repping the fur). Sure, I'll give him the 4/5.

[Lady Door]

The clay pot hippopotamus has traumatized Andy so much he has lost the will to carry on. That or the fact that he picked up Pokemon Go again and is busy hating Magikarp or Ditto or whatever he's stuck on at the moment.

--

I like Lucario a lot without his spikes and pants-legs. But then he also talks in the anime and I am extremely offended by this, yet still not quite so offended as when Pikachu spoke in I Choose You! (the latter mostly because of the words he spoke because if he's going to speak only short phrases in the 20 YEARS he has been a character, did they seriously have to be like that?).

[AndrewRogue]

Daily means every day? What the fuck kind of moron would try to do something like that.

Hippopotas: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR EYES? They have like, skin tags on them and it is freaking me out. Otherwise its a fairly cartoony looking hippo. The sand spraying holes are things and the color is some decent camo on both the male and female versions. Its... fine. I don't actually have a lot to tall out here besides those weird eyes that look weirder the more I look at them. 3/5.

Hippowdon: And this is the more serious take on it. Not to say there aren't other pokemon that do cute pre-evo into more serious evo, this one just really jumps out at me because they just feel like two different takes on the same idea. Not a lot of feature overlap outside the back holes expanding, not really sharing a color pallate, etc. I mean, I didn't super like Hippopotas' eyes, but completely losing the periscope look seems like a shame. The loss of the patterning kinda sucks too. I do like the extra nose holes though. I dunno. I don't think this is decidedly worse than its pre-evo for all that bitching, I just am somewhat disappointed at how the transition goes. 3/5.