Pokemon & Their Animal Counter Parts

Started by Volroc June 12th, 2010 9:31 PM
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Volroc

The Unpredictability Trainer

Male
Seen July 20th, 2015
Posted April 2nd, 2012
1,880 posts
13.1 Years
Which Pokemon are which animals?
and which do you think are wrong?
and which are correct?

Think this is Wrong:

Cyndaquil Classified as an Echidna

An Echidna

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a Hedgehog


looks more like a hedgehog to me O.o"

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Female
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Seen May 28th, 2016
Posted April 11th, 2016
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14.6 Years
I agree, but to be fair to those who think otherwise, most Pokemon are based off of more then one creature/plant/myth/inanimate object or at least the creative Pokemon are.
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I think Cyndaquil does look like an echidna, because of the long nose. I'll tell you what doesn't look like an echidna - Knuckles. :|

Most of them are understandable, but a few can get confusing. What's Lapras supposed to be? It looks like it could be a sea turtle, without the head, of course, but in the same generation, Squirtle's line appear much more turtle-like.
The little dinosaur-ish Bagon eventually becomes the huge dragon Salamence, but what the heck is Shelgon? I've never seen anything like that, ever.
Bug Pokémon always seem to look good, though. Despite how useless they are, you can't deny that they're idnetifiable. Butterfree's line is representative of butterfly metamorphosis, Beedrill is selfexplanatory, Heracross is clearly a giant rhino beetle, Illumise and Volbeat are fireflies... heck, even Gen IV, with all of its fails, has some pretty representative crickets - Kriketot and Kriketune.

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Seen August 26th, 2010
Posted August 25th, 2010
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Arcanine is a bit iffy. Is it a dog, is it a tiger, is it a wolverine set on fire ... :P

The little dinosaur-ish Bagon eventually becomes the huge dragon Salamence, but what the heck is Shelgon? I've never seen anything like that, ever.
Some sort of cocoon/pod/rock like Forretress, I guess. :P
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Timbjerr

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I can go down the list in pokedex order, naming them all off, but I gotte be at work in thirty minutes, so yeah, XD

My favorite pokemon/real world animal correlations include:
-Drowzee/Hypno being tapirs
-Chinchou/Lanturn being Angler fish
-Pineco/Forrestress being bagworms
-Croagunk/Toxicrak being poison dart frogs

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Arcanine is a bit iffy. Is it a dog, is it a tiger, is it a wolverine set on fire ... :P
I think it's based on some form of mythical being called kuma-inu, which is based on a mixture of dog, lion and tiger. A little cultural thing from Japan. :3
-Drowzee/Hypno being tapirs
Seriously, tapirs don't get enough love. Tapir Pokémon are awesome. (Is Munna supposed to be one too? PLEASE don't be a pre-evo!)

I refuse to accept Horsea as the "Dragon Pokemon".
This is another Japanese thing. As I believe it (and correct me if I'm wrong) in Japan, seahorses' names are transliterated as small or baby dragons. The reasoning here is that Horsea, as a seahorse, is a baby dragon. This makes more sense when you look further down the line at Kingdra being part Dragon-type, too.
(I will have to admit, my main reason for knowing about this is Fruits Basket; Hatori, being the dragon of the zodiac, becomes a seahorse - due to seahorses being baby dragons).

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Not to mention the weedy seadragon, which is closedly related to seahorses.

That does actually resemble Kingdra. That's one awesome animal!

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Kirbychu

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Seen August 20th, 2021
Posted July 28th, 2020
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This is another Japanese thing. As I believe it (and correct me if I'm wrong) in Japan, seahorses' names are transliterated as small or baby dragons. The reasoning here is that Horsea, as a seahorse, is a baby dragon. This makes more sense when you look further down the line at Kingdra being part Dragon-type, too.
(I will have to admit, my main reason for knowing about this is Fruits Basket; Hatori, being the dragon of the zodiac, becomes a seahorse - due to seahorses being baby dragons).
I did not know this. I could understand Kingdra (Maybe Seadra), since it's obviously a sea dragon. Horsea however, is just a normal seahorse. Thanks for filling me in,

myrrhman

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Squirtle is based off a turtle, but you knew that
And a Squirrel (the tail)

Which brings up the question: is it Squir-tle (squirrel turtle) or is it squirt-le (squirt/water turtle)?
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I read that Smeargle is supposed to be based on the dog breed Beagle.
Floppy ears, the ends of the names are the same...
And in the episode "The Art of Pokemon" they sit like dogs a lot.
Personally, I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read it. XDD Interesting, though.

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WriteThemWrong

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charmander must be a salamander. then it evolves into charmeleon, so it's a chameleon? then it evolves into a charizard which is a dragon. i don't get it.
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What's Cubone and Marowak then. Those confuse me. Are they just suppose to represented by the skulls on their heads?
Cubone is supposed to be similar to a dinosaur or fossil, with it being a ground type and having a skull on its head. Marowak has the same theme, with it being a fossil found in the ground. Their Japanese names are onomatopoeic of clattering (Karakara and Garagara respectively), which adds to the bones theme. It is worth questioning just how many fossil Pokémon the first generation wanted, what with these, the Kabuto and Omanyte lines and Aerodactyl all being Gen I fossil Pokémon. :|

charmander must be a salamander. then it evolves into charmeleon, so it's a chameleon? then it evolves into a charizard which is a dragon. i don't get it.
It's just a play on them being lizards. Salamanders and chameleons are both types of lizard, and then become a monstrous lizard, or dragon. Really, the confusion stems from the American names, as the Japanese names are simply Hitokage (the word for salamander, which also consists of hi, meaning fire, and tokage, meaning lizard), Lizardo (which is self explanatory and has no mention of chameleons), and Lizardon (which takes the Lizardo of Charmeleon and adds don which means tooth and is commonly added to the ends of dinosaur names.

So all the chameleon confusion happened in the translation and localisation to American release. Hope that helped a little!

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