Let's Talk About Pokemon - The Nidoran Family

029 + 032 - The Nidorans

And here is a line in the Pokedex that didn't age well. Obviously the shtick here is that this line represents the idea of sexual bimorphism in species, the phenomenon of genders of the same species looking different. But in 1996, gender wasn't invented yet, so we had to dedicate two slots in the Pokedex for what is, at least in effect, meant to be the same Pokemon. But of course, they can't go and merge two separate Pokemon into one slot, else that would throw off the whole dex's numerical order. So it's just funny that because of the byproduct of gender not being an actual mechanic until the next generation, we're stuck with this retroactively awkward Pokemon. Especially considering these two lines, for whatever reason, can't even mate with each other.

At any rate, the two Nidorans are a strange couple of Pokemon. Visually they look a lot like rabbits, with big ears, the teeth, and general body shape. But they have spots, horns, and spines on their bodies, which imply they're hairless mammals. Their barbed bodies clearly referencing the fact that they're poison type.

030 - Nidorina

The female Nidoran evolves into Nidorina, which is where this design leans more overtly into the more monstrous parts of it. Rabbit was clearly the starting point, but even by now it's very much diverged into its own, odd species of creature that can't be so cleanly described. And I've already talked about how much I miss that mode of design, and how it's one of the things I love about Gen 1 Pokemon in particular. By now it's like a rabbit that's picked up a lot of lizard traits, between the claws, skin that's even more implied to be bald, and its teeth morphing into more of a fang shape.

031 - Nidoqueen

Nidoqueen is, as you'd imagine, where the female Nidoran line ends up, picking up a Poison/Ground typing seemingly out of nowhere, but I'll get into that when we get to Nidoking. For now, Nidoqueen does feel a bit like the animal representation of motherliness. Tall and heavy-set, with a division down its belly that at least IMPLIES a pouch like a kangaroo is there, though I don't think it actually functions like one. The breasts do feel like a bit much, but I guess fair enough if making this THE maternal Pokemon is the shtick, and it's done fairly tastefully.

The one thing I don't like about Nidoqueen is how much they've softened it up over the years, though. I would hope they've done this to differentiate it from Nidoking more than anything, but it still bugs me a little that this gets done to a "girl" Pokemon. Like for pete's sake, they even took away her teeth! What's up with that!

033 - Nidorino

Male Nidoran becomes Nidorino, which is a bit meaner and more bestial in overall shape, with it being much more low to the ground and being much sharper in shape. Which to me somehow feels more like it's taking up that "awkward middle stage" mantle than 'Rina. Something about it being too far of a jump from Nidoran while also crowding a little too close to Nidoking's look that makes it feel a little indistinct to me.

034 - Nidoking

Finally, we get to Nidoking, the male counterpart to Nidoqueen, and I think this design is pretty beastly, in a good way. Above all the others, Nidoking really leans the hardest into being some barely-descript monster that SOMEHOW used a bunny as a jumping-off point, in a way that feels really cool for it. Plus it looks credibly like an animal that would get the moniker "king" without being overtly monarchy-based. It's also one of a very many Gen 1 Pokemon that fall into a subcategory I would call "kaiju design", which is to say, a design of Pokemon that could credibly be made into an old-style kaiju rubber suit and fight Godzilla or get beaten up by an Ultraman or something. Speaking of which-

The Ground type feels a little random for this line, until you look at Nidoking and measure it up to extended Tohoverse Kaiju, Baragon. It's been on record that one of the inspirations behind Pokemon as a series and the designs behind the first generation being a lot of older Japanese media, including Ultraman, and likely also including some Godzilla media, which could be where Nidoking picks up its similarities to the burrowing, purple weirdo with a big horn on its forehead.

Overall, the Nidos are a line that I don't LOVE, but definitely hold a soft spot for just due to their weirdness and general ambiguity to which animal they could even be based on. All the while being pretty solid design too, even if they're not ENTIRELY my thing.

Personal Score: 8.5/10

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