Let's Talk About Pokemon - Mankey and Primeape

056 - Mankey

This is probably the first time a first entry for a particular Type doesn't really feel like a "mascot" for that type. Or at the very least, I feel like the Machop family is far more the first Pokemon that comes to most peoples' mind when thinking about "Fighting" types, broadly.

Mankey is an oddball as a creature, and is certainly unique in the way it looks; being little more than the ragged, messy-haired, pig-nosed head of a monkey that grew lanky arms and legs, has a tail growing out its backend, and looks perpetually pissed. This in an of itself feels like it hardly communicates the "Fighting" nature of it, I suppose beyond Asian culture usually associating monkeys with martial arts. But here, the Fighting-ness of its type feels more embodied by it being so pissed it'll just beat the ever-loving crap out of you. Which, sure, monkeys are a good pick for that type of creature, because an angry monkey absolutely will beat the ever-loving crap out of a human three times their size.

057 - Primeape

Primeape is one of those Gen 1 evolutions that doesn't change much. It's bigger, its limbs more bulked up, but it actually ends up losing its tail. But it does gain metal bands on its ankles and wrists, I guess to make it look more like an angry, unchained beast. And sure, for what it's worth, Primeape's design does well to communicate pent-up anger, with it being such a compact design with explosive features, namely in the body fur. Like its fur is a little too spiny to be smooth and soft, which again, is good and effective design communication to make this Pokemon sound abrasive. It's good at what it does, I just can't say it does anything for me, personally. But given Pokemon based on primates becomes a corner of Pokemon I will eventually find outright boring, it's at least batting better than average, here.

Personal Score: 6/10

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