The Chikorita Family
The second generation begins! Long before we had any solid confirmation, we all knew in our hearts that there would one day be additional, brand new pokemon, even if an awful lot of Pokemon's promotional materials treated the "150" as some sort of magic, be-all number, and the first official pokedex expansion felt like a very big deal.
Just as before and just as every generation since, the very first new monster in the dex would be the grass-type started of the new games, Chikorita.
I always had mixed feelings about this one. At the time, it felt like it didn't carry the unique punch of bulbasaur. I grew to really like it, though, and especially its lack of clear connection to any particular animal. It's just this gumdrop shaped thingy with four nubby legs and a great big leaf on top, apparently meant to be a sort of spicy herb, and with an odd little collar of green nodules, like a little pearl necklace or something. It's different!
Just as before and just as every generation since, the very first new monster in the dex would be the grass-type started of the new games, Chikorita.
I always had mixed feelings about this one. At the time, it felt like it didn't carry the unique punch of bulbasaur. I grew to really like it, though, and especially its lack of clear connection to any particular animal. It's just this gumdrop shaped thingy with four nubby legs and a great big leaf on top, apparently meant to be a sort of spicy herb, and with an odd little collar of green nodules, like a little pearl necklace or something. It's different!
Chikorita promptly evolves into what resembles a sauropod dinosaur, which was definitely something missing from the first generation, though it sort of loses the weirdness of Chikorita in the process. It was its own sort of animal-plant oddity, and now it's just an animal with a vegetable coat of paint, which would become a rigid norm for grass starters. The buds around its neck have sprouted into leaves at this stage, which are said to emit a "spicy" aroma.
Finally, we get Meganium, which swaps the ring of leaves for a neck frill of flower petals and the single head-leaf for a pair of antennae. Altogether, kind of a simplistic design compared to the fully evolved starters we're accustomed to - and those that come later - but I do like how much of the soft cuteness it retains from its unevolved forms. This is one of the very few starters that doesn't go full rampaging beast in its final stage. Still kind of a downgrade from Chikorita, in my opinion, but not bad.
Maybe not as cool as Venusaur, but it offers something different. I never thought much about it in the past, but now that I'm reviewing it, I really like this sweet, docile flowersaurus.
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