Nymble and Lokix

Now this is a MOMENTOUS event. An Orthropteran of any kind - a cricket, a katydid or a grasshopper - is one of those most obligatory, obvious "bugs" this franchise has neglected its entire existence, except for that time the dev team mistakenly assumed a beetle was supposed to be a cricket just because it was violin themed. The artists who design each Pokemon actually don't get to decide their final names, typings or pokedex entries, is what happened there. So no, we've never truly had an Orthopteran, and I have to say our first turned out pretty charming! Nymble is an adorable little shiny black and grey grasshopper. It has an artificial plasticy appearance, but that suits an insect, and I really love its multifaceted, sort of clover-shaped or plus-sign eyes. Its rear legs are also rather interestingly folded up on its back, which funny enough resembles some members of a real grasshopper group, the Tridactylidae, often referred to as "pygmy mole crickets:"

Phoot by Mu3sii

In fact, with their commonly all-black coloration and fat, rounded chunkiness I feel like these insects were absolutely the inspiration for Nymble's design! Thanks Mossworm for first calling my attention to this!

Lokix is a surprise choice for our first-ever bug/dark Pokemon. Really? That went to a grasshopper? I truly never would have seen that coming. Now standing up on its middle pair of legs in a humanoid stance, the hind legs remain folded on its "back" like its prevolution, but are more menacingly lined with sawlike orange teeth, and can unfurl into long, vicious looking legs when it attacks. The body is even more "artificial" and "plasticy" looking, but again not in a bad way from a design standpoint, with a very pleasing combination of shiny black and gunmetal blue parts on a sort of bullet-shaped body. The face is a smooth, rounded black mask with glaring, triangular orange eyes matching the also triangular, orange blades on its limbs, which looks decent, even if I strongly miss the personality of its previous "electronic" looking eyes.

Many have assumed this Pokemon is a loose reference to Kamen Rider, and that's fairly obvious, I mean, it's a grasshopper with tokusatsu-looking armor that jump kicks, yeah. It's not a direct design reference but it is a conceptual and genre reference, for sure.

Otherwise, I'm not entirely certain where its dark-type nature is supposed to play in for the Pokemon itself; it's not framed as much of a bully, thief, trickster, villain or antihero. All we're really told is that it's a tough fighter. The legs folded up on its "back" flip open to nearly its whole body length, which would look pretty intimidating if it ever spent much time standing up on them. The Pokedex implies it does so and even calls this "Showdown Mode," but it really only shows off the legs for quick little animations. Still, it's a cool effect and an overally stylish, surprising take on an insect that doesn't usually have such a sinister and "cool" media image.