#029 - Nidoran♀

NIDORAN♀

IN SHOW

Nidoran♀is another one of those pokemon in a long line of pokemon that are there as background characters, though they are often seen to be owned by younger children. There was one main Nidoran♀ though, one who was involved in romance with another Nidoran♂. When their trainers found this out the plot essentially began to copy that of the Romeo and Juliet. The two pokemon were constantly trying to find one another, but their families had forbidden them from ever seeing their one true love. At the end, the two pokemon kiss and Nidoran♀ evolves into Nidorina. It’s cute and romantic, and it’s what we expected from the only two pokemon with actual genders.

WHY YOU WANT A NIDORAN

Nidoran♀ evolved at a pretty steady rate and when it did evolve it evolved into some pretty powerful pokemon. There wasn’t a lot of problem catching it pretty early on, so it was good pokemon to have to balance out your team if you wanted the poison attacks without the bug type weighing you down, and you just weren’t that into Ekans.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A NIDORAN

Nidoran♀ only ever learned the most basic poison type attack before it evolved. The picture in the pokedex was definitely Nidoran♀ like, but it wasn’t the Nidoran♀ in the show at all. This was a pity because Nidoran♀ actually had a pretty simple design, and I at least thought that the people in charge of the pictures couldn’t have screwed that up. Of course, as usual, they totally let me down, and I think just dropped the ball in general.

IN SUMMARY

Nidoran♀ is definitely an ends to a means, but it can stand up on its own two feet. Sure, it’s only really shown as the pokemon that young children have, but if I were a kid and had a Nidoran♀ I’d be really happy. Because by the time I could be an actual trainer I’d probably have already evolved my little Nidoran♀ into one of the pokemon in its bad ass evolutionary line and could actually kick some serious butt out of the starting gate. Yes, it only learns the most basic poison type move, but it doesn’t have the TIME to learn anything else because it evolves so quickly. This is actually a pokemon that only exists to evolve that was done right. It’s not a drawn out evolution where they pretend the pokemon is meant to be its own creature, but because it’s not Nidoran♀ actually does become its own creature. Maybe this was totally coincidental, but it’s the best coincidence to ever happen to what has become one of the staples of pokemon.

#028 - Sandslash

SANDSLASH

IN SHOW
Sandslash was another background pokemon, one that was often seen in the background while the heroes were walking by to show the peaceful pokemon world, or one show as an opponent’s pokemon or in a flash of a pokemon battle. The most memorable Sandslash, for me anyways, was the Sandslash that was stuck in an Onix. Somehow the poor animal had gotten lodged in their causing pain for everyone involved and a truly terrifying Onix.

WHY YOU WANT A SANDSLASH

Sandslash was definitely a step up from Sandshrew, at least in the looks department. It was much more intimidating in its picture and you could actually see how your cute little Sandshrew could actually become your tough and scary Sandslash. The pokedex picture was actually pretty good, it definitely looked like a Sandslash, though Yellow’s picture was much better.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A SANDSLASH

Sandslash has an identical move set to Sandshrew, other than the strange fact that Sandslash can apparently learn Sand Attack twice, and Sandshrew actually learns the same moves faster than Sandslash! Sandshrew can even learn the exact same HM’s as Sandslash so Sandslash doesn’t even have that going for him. The poor thing.

IN SUMMARY

Sandslash literally only exists for the stat bonuses. You could actually simply keep your cute and cuddly little Sandshrew forever and never even attempt to evolve it if you don’t care about stats, or are planning on boosting them with different items, because Sandslash would bring nothing else to the table but better stats and a new hair cut. It’s true that Sandlash didn’t ever really make an impression on us in the show, but we at least assumed he would be better in some way then his pre-evolution. We were horribly, horribly wrong.

#027 - Sandshrew

SANDSHREW

IN SHOW

I remember seeing Sandshrew a lot in the show, but not as a main character. Sandshrew was always one of those pokemon that you would see living life in a pokemon utopia while the main characters were walking by a field, or in clips of battle in a league competition. This always surprised me because Sandshrew was so cute and could have been a pretty good mascot for the series. Maybe not the main mascot, but Brock definitely could have branched out and caught one as it would have been much closer to Rock than his later pokemon would be.

WHY YOU WANT A SANDSHREW

Sandshrew actually has a pretty good pokedex picture, as far as they go. You can clearly identify what pokemon is popping up in front of you, and it’s cute, which is what we had come to expect for the Sandshrew we had seen on the show. It may not have been the most imaginative of the pokedex pictures but it did actually show the pokemon in a reliable way which is more than we had come to expect. He even has some pretty good moves that he’ll learn before evolving, and he continues the good move set even if you choose not to evolve him.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A SANDSHREW

Sandshrew doesn’t learn any Ground type moves. He’s the first Ground type pokemon in the pokedex and he doesn’t know a single move! Yes, all of his moves fit him and work well together, but when you add pokemon to your party a lot of people tend to do it because they need the type to defeat a trainer or gym leader, and when the first, and most likely to be found, Ground type doesn’t actually have any Ground type moves, that can cause serious problems. Also, it learns a poison attack and I don’t understand how it can do that but not learn any from its only elemental type.

IN SUMMARY

Sandshrew was a cute pokemon that got a lot of air time, even if it was in the background, and a lot of people remember it very clearly because it was in so many background shots. Its constant appearances are probably because it was so animal like and very believable. Even with effective attacks it lost its appeal because it didn’t actually have any moves of its type and that can cause problems when you’re building a team around different types and how they work well together. Having a Sandshrew is essentially the same thing as having a normal pokemon but with different weaknesses and it’s not really worth the slot on that basis alone.

#026 - Raichu

RAICHU

IN SHOW

Though Raichu has been in a lot of episodes of the show, the first and only Raichu to appear was the one owned by Lt. Surge. He was a powerhouse that had been evolved at a young level just so he could be powerful. This Raichu easily defeated Pikachu the first time they faced off, and made Ash question whether or not he should evolve Pikachu to compete. Most other Raichu that have been seen have been background characters either demonstrating the evolutionary power of evolution stones or in background/filler fights. But Lt. Surge’s Raichu is the only one that ever strongly affected the plot, almost making Raichu the pokemon mascot and not Pikachu, and the only one anyone ever remembers.

WHY YOU WANT A RAICHU

Raichu looked cool, though not really intimidating or the powerhouse that we expected. He can learn a variety of TM’s, and even the HM Flash which can be helpful later on in the game as you begin to encounter dark and dangerous caves.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A RAICHU

First of all, Thunderstones are hard to locate, so even having the chance to get a Raichu can be a tedious chore, unless you decided to go through the process of catching one, which doesn’t make much sense when you already have a Pikachu you could evolve. Raichu was supposed to be a tough badass, but he didn’t learn any moves at all. Because of this he suffers from ‘exactly the same but...’, but in this case instead of the move set being only slightly improved on there is actually no change. Because Raichu will not learn any moves. At all.

IN SUMMARY

Raichu seems like a really cool idea, and it might just be because Pikachu is so popular. How many times did we wish as kids that Ash would finally take the plunge and evolve Pikachu, because we had been told that Raichu was stronger and would have a bunch of powerful moves. But the games were a huge disappointment because Raichu didn’t learn ANYTHING. And maybe it was because Thunderstones were so hard to come by that it was supposed to take a long time for you to be able to evolve your Pikachu so there was no real need for Raichu to learn any moves, but if you caught a wild Raichu you would have to rely solely on TMs. And some people would catch a Pikachu and not even look at it until they had a Thunderstone and could get the cool evolution. It’d be a shame for those people because their pokemon would never actually be worthwhile. EVER! When we were young we had no way of knowing whether or not a pokemon would learn moves. There was no book on the subject and no website that would give us a list. So people would evolve a young Pikachu, have a pointless Raichu, or catch a Raichu, and level it hoping that eventually it might learn something. Sadly you would get to level 100 and realize that you had levelled up a useless pokemon, and wasted a slot on your team that could have actually been held by a useful pokemon.

I’m done ranting now.

#025 - Pikachu

PIKACHU

IN SHOW

Now we come to it, the man of the hour, the pokemon that even your grandmother can recognize on sight. Ash’s first pokemon who hated him in the beginning and by the end of the next episode was inseparable from him. Pikachu has been shown to hate being in a pokeball and is constantly on the run from the evil Team Rocket who are trying to enslave the poor guy because of his amazing strength. And it’s true, not all Pikachu are like the Pikachu we’ve come to know and love. Most Pikachu live out in the forest, in groups, finding food and just in general being electric mice. Pikachu has been in every single episode, except for special ones, and every single movie. He’s even been the subject of some of his own shorts. He loves ketchup and beating people, but he’s also very kind and loves to make other people happy.

WHY YOU WANT A PIKACHU

Despite Pikachu being omnipresent in the show’s universe, Pikachu is actually a pretty uncommon pokemon so if you can catch a Pikachu you can show it off to people and be proud. Plus, he comes in handy for the gym battle against Misty when, depending on the pokemon you chose, it can be hard to keep your head above water.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT A PIKACHU

Almost everyone goes out of their way to locate and catch a Pikachu so that they can show it off because it is so popular so having a Pikachu won’t lead to any originality points. The only place you can locate a Pikachu is in the Veridian Forest and the next gym is Brock, so you won’t find much use for him in that battle. Pikachu is actually only really useful for the Water gym, as most other gyms are resistant to him or take only normal damage. Also, he looks a little chubby in the picture, and I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s been eating too much ketchup.

IN SUMMARY

Pikachu in the show is one of the main characters, and the only pokemon to never leave Ash for any reason, even if it’s just to be stored with Prof. Oak. He’s cute and cuddly and he’s got a personality that we all love. He’s at the center of almost every single one of Team Rocket’s plots and that’s saying something. Pikachu is the mascot of the entire franchise, and sure that’s mainly because he’s Ash’s pokemon, but still. But the Pikachu in the show is extremely smart, fast, and over powered. He can defeat rock and ground pokemon just because he wants to. When Pikachu defeated Brock by simply powering up his electricity or Rhyhorn by aiming for the horn, people laughed. It was one of the most ludicrous things we’d ever seen, and a clear break of the game rules. But our Pikachu would never be that awesome. Though Pikachu is a pretty nifty pokemon and is one of the most useful for defeating Misty, unless you’re running into a lot of water trainers, Pikachu can be pretty useless in game. So catch Pikachu because he’s hard to catch and it’s nice to say you did it, but don’t stick with him the whole game.

#024 - Arbok

ARBOK

IN SHOW

Jessie’s newly evolved Arbok lasted from Season 1 to Season 6 of the show, and we were all pretty attached to it by that point. We had seen Arbok blast off with the team countless times, and be recruited into some of Jessie’s many schemes. Arbok was still as emotional as it had been when it was an Ekans, crying when it didn’t have the lead role in a movie and relying on Jessie for support. When Arbok finally left the show it was only to protect another group of Ekans and because Jessie forced him to. Arbok was extremely upset, refusing to leave and crying his eyes out when he did. This may not have been the first time we had seen Jessie and James be upset, but it was one of the first times we realized that they did really care for and love their pokemon.

WHY YOU WANT AN ARBOK

Arbok’s picture looks really good. His design was solid, and yes it’s hard to mess up a snake but after spending so long with Arbok we knew what he looked like and the Arbok pokedex picture actually did it justice. He could learn an HM, strength, which is always a nice thing to have. It’s evolution from Ekans actually make sense as they build on what Ekans already brought to the table to give Arbok a good strong look.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT AN ARBOK

Arbok is a disappointing pokemon when it comes to move set. It actually learns all of the same moves as Ekans and learns them faster so it’s actually a better idea to wait to evolve your Ekans instead of allowing it to evolve the moment it hits level 22. It’s ‘exactly the same but...’ stats approve and that’s supposed to make it a little more worthwhile. It’s hard to see why you shouldn’t just keep your Ekans as an Ekans for the entire game when there’s no real reason to evolve a pokemon, and that was a huge error that the company made. In a game that’s all about levelling your pokemon and making it stronger, there’s a problem when your pokemon is actually a faster learner before it evolves, meaning it improves more in its primary stage.

IN SUMMARY

In all honesty, maybe we should have been expecting disappointment when it comes to Arbok. He was never that good in the show for all that we loved him and we constantly saw him being defeated. So why did we expect any better in the game? Perhaps it’s our own fault that Arbok sucked so bad? We got our hopes up that Arbok might just be awful because of how Jessie trained it and used it, and maybe she just hadn’t tapped into Arbok’s full potential. We would be able to do that because we were the ultimate pokemon masters and all our badges showed that we could in fact train pokemon to be worthwhile even when we were told they weren’t. But the show producers were actually trying to warn us! Arbok was gonna suck, and we had better be prepared. It’s a shame that we weren’t.

#023 - Ekans

EKANS

IN SHOW

Jessie had an Ekans. It was her most important pokemon, and it helped define her entire character. She was the bad girl with the snake pokemon, making her intimidating and possibly even sexy to some people. And Ekans loved Jessie. At one point they were separated on the Island of Giant Pokemon and all Ekans could think about was returning to his Jessie, and when they finally were reunited it was very emotional for the both of them. Ekans only ever wanted to make Jessie happy and this was proven when he decided to evolve because Jessie wanted him to so badly.

WHY YOU WANT AN EKANS

Anyone who loves snakes will want an Ekans. There are only 2 families of snake pokemon and Ekans comprises one half of the first family. Its evolved form Arbok is hard to catch, so if you want an Arbok your best bet is to go for the fairly common Ekans. Ekans also receives a pretty good variety of moves before it levels up so it creates a good basis for the evolution. Ekans also happens to be the very first pure poison pokemon in the pokedex so it has some pretty unique strengths without the added weakness of different types, and that hadn’t been seen yet.

WHY YOU DO NOT WANT AN EKANS

Because Ekans is the first pure poison type in the pokedex you would expect him to have a pretty good selection of poison attacks to work with. You’d be wrong. By the time Ekans evolves he will only have poison sting, unless you wait until level 38 to evolve him, and poison sting is not one of the stronger poison attacks. Catching an Ekans because you hope he will have enough poison attacks to do some severe damage to an opposing type will set you up for disappointment.

IN SUMMARY

Ekans was a loyal and worthy pokemon to Jessie, and everyone was happy when it evolved, just as they would be when their own Ekans evolved. It’s not because people don’t like Ekans either, the Ekans in the television show made it so that no one would ever think poorly of an Ekans because it had just enough character to make us root for it. But Ekans was just of no use until it evolved, and when even the character in the television show that loves it above all other pokemon agrees with that statement, you know there’s a problem.