#175 - Togepi
Fairy (Normal Prior Gen VI)
Togepri~ Togepi was the premiere Baby Pokemon, and one of the first Generation II Pokemon introduced---if you don't count Ho-Oh since it wasn't officially said to be a new Pokemon till quite a bit later, I believe it was the first one introduced (in America at least), and man, when this little guy popped up in the show, people went nuts. There were a ton of rumors about Togepi and how you could obtain one in Generation I through a variety of cheat codes, but it wasn't till Gold and Silver that it was actually capable to obtain one. Togepi, in Egg form, is given to the player at the beginning of the game and although you're not forced to keep it in your Party, most players will naturally want to see what hatches from it, and I imagine many already guessed or knew it would be Togepi. Once Togepi hatches...well, that's up to you, but it'll be pretty underdeveloped at Level 5 compared to the rest of your team at that point, and most folks probably dumped it unless they really liked Togepi. Me? I was sick of the little thing thanks to the show so there was no way that little punk was getting a spot on my team, but in Generation IV I lightened up to it a bit and used it in Platinum and, well, it was pretty cool all things considered. But not enough to consider it a favorite. In Generation II it was a Normal-type but was made Fairy-type in Generation VI, which seemed an obvious choice and one Type Change most people guessed ahead of time.
Though Togepi didn't evolve from a Generation I Pokemon, it is a Baby Pokemon as it shares all of their traits such as not being found in the wild in Generation II, only through breeding, and being unable to breed itself without evolving. Like most Baby Pokemon, it's pretty uneventful and weak till it evolves, with the only move of interest being Metronome in Generation II, unless you kept it around to Level 38 to learn Double-Edge. Togepi is meant to represent the Pokemon Egg introduced in Generation II, but with that being said I'm surprised they didn't use the design of its egg as the generic egg design in the games, since I feel like that was meant to be the point of its design originally---literally a "Pokemon Egg" Pokemon. Of course, all the other media, and even the official art a couple of times, show that Pokemon Eggs have patterns resembling the Pokemon that hatch from within them, but Game Freak's never gone through with this and incorporated it into the actual games, though it doesn't seem all that difficult to do. By my count, there's about 320~ egg designs you'd need, and a few you could probably combine due to similar appearances, but there isn't much reason to go to all this effort for a small visual touch, but it's one I'm sure a lot of fans have wanted since Pokemon Eggs were introduced.
As the Pokemon representing the idea of "Pokemon Eggs", Game Freak went with a somewhat generic, fantasy design and thus Togepi doesn't resemble any real-life creature or Pokemon, though it seems to be an abstract baby chick of sorts, like Chansey, and I actually used to think the two were connected due to the egg theme. Togepi's egg is all about happiness and joy which also fits into Chansey's lore, though this was proven false when Togepi got its own evolved form in GS and later Chansey got its own Baby Form, and now as of Generation VI they're not even the same Type anymore due to the Fairy change. I think the design of Togepi accomplishes what it sets out to do, but it's too cute for me and I've never been a fan. When I first saw it as a kid, I was hyped because, hey, new Pokemon, but I also wondered why it looked like Bart Simpson.
Togepi of course played a major role in the show being the first New Pokemon! officially introduced, and I remember the hype on Kids WB! leading up to its premier episode. It's a shame Cartoon Network basically tosses new episodes of Pokemon out without any fanfare, because I remember WB always hyping up the show each week, even if it turned out to be a filler, and creating pretty cute bumpers for the show. Remember the one with Batman and Jigglypuff? Togepi of course for a lot of folks wore thin, especially for Misty fans, as the appearance of Togepi pretty much signaled her descent into pointlessness as her fiery, independent personality greatly took a hit (I mean, they literally had her holding a baby every episode now), and all Togepi really did was act cute and goof around. Throughout the show, Togepi was hinted to have a special power (Metronome, basically) that everyone was unaware of, and saved them a few times, but the writers never really did anything with it, and once they got to Johto, Togepi's role was basically pointless---it wasn't till it and Misty's return in Hoenn that its plot was finally resolved. Years later in Diamond and Pearl, the show made amends with the fans who had to suffer the tyranny of Togepi by making a great filler episode all about a completely vicious, cruel-hearted Togepi which is how everyone saw Misty's Togepi basically. Pokemon Special technically did this gimmick way back during Gold and Silver with Gold's ramblin', gamblin' Togepi (rearrange Togepi and you get OT: Pegi, coincidence?) but seeing Pokemon act differently than they're normally depicted as is always fun. Like Iris' pissed off Dragonite.
#176 - Togetic
Fairy/Flying (Normal/Flying Prior Gen VI)
If you actually kept Togepi around on your team and maxxed out its happiness, you were surprised with a Togetic. Surprise! In Generation II, Togetic had no natural attacks like Togepi except for Metronome and Double-Edge, meaning you'll need to waste your TMs if you want to get any use out of it, though it's very underwhelming for the evolution of a Pokemon that was always hyped up as possessing an unknown power waiting to be unleashed. Since Generation IV, it's become a middle-form due to getting a new evolution, and though you can use Eviolite on it, it lacks the usefulness of its evolved form and really there's no point in keeping it unevolved, though it can hold its own somewhat now due to its new Fairy-typing if you absolutely need to use it. I really dislike its localized name, by the way---originally it was Togechick which would've worked perfectly fine as an English name, but they had to change it to the ugly sounding and looking Togetic for whatever reason.
Togepi's design wasn't amazing, but it was cute enough and a decent Pokemon, but honestly I've never really cared for Togetic's design, it basically looks like they stretched out Togepi's body and added wings, and it just looks unappealing to me. With Togepi's body being yellow, you'd think Togetic's body would follow suit, but instead it's colored like the egg which always bothered me. Whoever made the original Gold and Silver sprites should be given a raise because they were the only ones who realized this color change was dumb, so they left Togetic as yellow like Togepi which looked far more appealing, but Crystal "fixed" this. Its original Shiny sprite though was yellow, even in Crystal, but they sadly changed it to a different shade of white in Generation III, making this one of those Shiny Pokemon just not worth the effort to obtain. Sometimes when I use a Pokemon I also grow to like its design, but using a Togetic in Platinum did nothing for me, and I just wanted to evolve it as soon as possible.
While Togepi was an abstract baby chicken, Togetic looks like an abstract adult chicken, though it's more like a guardian angel of sorts, said to travel around the world searching for pure-hearted folks to share its joy and happiness with. Game Freak makes no judgment about the types of folks who play their game, and thus in Gold and Silver no matter your immoral inclinations (don't worry, they looked the other way that one time you Googled Gardevoir) obtaining a Togetic is quite easy as it's basically only a matter of traveling alongside the Togepi you're given for free. Basically every Pokemon protagonist is probably meant to be seen as a pure-hearted trainer, though many fans are a bit tired of this and probably want to have moral choices, of sorts, in Pokemon, some fans even wanting for it to be possible for you to join the Evil Team, which seems unlikely to happen in a main series game at least. For now that's limited to Pokemon Colosseum, a game for mature adults like me who play Persona 4 in the original Japanese language.
Despite debuting in Gold and Silver, Togetic didn't appear in the show till Hoenn in the "Mirage Kingdom Arc" which saw Misty return alongside her Togepi. In a sovereign kingdom randomly in the middle of Hoenn, free from water and trumpets, there is a legend that only one who owns a Togepi can ascend to the throne. Anyway, the Mirage Kingdom Arc was basically like a movie of sorts with an evil chancellor plotting to kidnap Misty's Togepi so he could take over the kingdom for himself, but naturally things don't go as planned for him, and Togepi evolves into Togetic in order to protect the hidden "Togepi Dimension". I'm not a Misty fan, but this two-parter was pretty fun due to having an actual non-Team Rocket villain for once, and finally saw Togepi actually make itself useful. Of course, like all good things in the show, once it evolved into Togetic it left to protect its Togepi friends, and was never seen or heard from again. Good. A fun-fact is that the Japanese voice actor of the princess of the Mirage Kingdom, Princess Sarah, went on to play Dawn in Diamond and Pearl, and this ties into our next Pokemon rather nicely as you'll soon see.
#468 - Togekiss
Fairy/Flying (Normal/Flying Prior Gen VI)
It took till Generation IV, but Game Freak finally gave us a Pokemon who felt like it properly represented the potential of Togepi. A lot of Generation II Pokemon fizzled out by the end of their evolution line as I mentioned back in my Generation II intro, and Togetic was definitely a big offender in that regard who felt like a complete disappointment, especially since we'd been used to seeing Togepi for years and everyone was expecting him to evolve into something awesome. Togekiss isn't necessarily awesome, but I do feel it is a nice Pokemon to end an evolutionary line on, and is one Generation IV Cross-Gen evolution I'm glad was made. Anyway, Togekiss evolves from Togetic through the use of the new Shiny Stone evolutionary stone, and like most stone evolutions this means it doesn't have any level-up moves---neither does Togetic even in Generation IV, learning only two actual attack moves that are very ill-suited due to being Physical, so prepare to use Heart Scales to pick up its inherent moves, or put the TMs you've collected to good use, though as of Generation V this isn't as big of an issue due to the godsend of infinite TMs. Togekiss upon its introduction was fairly good, a special wall with a lot of unique abilities such as Serene Grace, making it more likely for secondary effects of moves to come into play such as making the opponent flinch, its various healing abilities, and being able to Baton Pass Nasty Plot, though it did have its weaknesses such as its low Speed and, of course, Stealth Rock. While Generation V saw it drop a bit, Generation VI brought it back with the new Fairy-typing, though it's one of the weaker Fairy Pokemon in high-level play due to Flying giving it some additional, unneeded weaknesses and not having all the tricks that Clefable and Mega Gardevoir have. Considering Togekiss is the final evolution of a rather popular, "mascot" Pokemon, I think a Mega might be in the cards to fix that.
While Togetic looked like an awkwardly squashed and stretched Togepi, Togekiss' design is a bit better and more unique looking, going for what appears to be a dove-like creature mixed with an angel. Besides the little spots on the bottom of its body, the egg motif is pretty much gone by this point and thus it feels fully evolved, whereas Togetic's design gave the illusion that it was still growing out of its egg though it had fused with its actual body. I think it's pretty held-back for a Generation IV evolution, which sometimes can be said to go a bit above and beyond as we saw with Rhyperior, though it does live up to the stereotype that all the Cross-Generation evolutions from that generation were old Pokemon who got fatter. The only issue I have with Togekiss' design is that it looks fine when seen from the side as in its art and in its sprites, but when seen from the front its body-shape can come off as looking a bit awkward, as seen by its appearances in the show and its XY model. It's not ruined by this, but it's one Pokemon who I think works better in a 2D world.
Togekiss is said to be a marvelous Pokemon who appears in peaceful regions bringing gifts of kindness and joy, but it's said that as of recently, its appearances have grown quite rare. Deep. Of course, the Pokemon World itself is a pretty awesome place to live...yeah, Kanto had a pretty big problem with organized crime, and every other year some nut tries to take over the world with Legendary Pokemon, but the average person in Pokemon is extremely friendly and talkative. It's really quite odd how Lysandre is convinced in XY that the world needs cleansing and humans are a selfish race, when literally every NPC you chat with seems to love giving out free gifts to whoever talks to them. Game Freak's social commentary tends to be pretty one-note and aimed specifically at the audience, and often doesn't really naturally fit into the world they create. Lysandre's comments about the state of humanity I think can be seen as relevant and thought-provoking, but only to our world, not his, and thus it's more like he's directly addressing the player rather than feeling like a natural inhabitant of the Pokemon World, and I think that cheapens the commentary when it doesn't flow with the narrative. I thought Black and White probably had the best plot with this in mind, because it tackled an issue that made sense for the inhabitants of the Pokemon World while also commenting on moral ideas that we the audience can relate to, though in a different way. Now I wonder, is there any place in the real world that Togekiss would actually visit?
I despise Togekiss' role in the show. I mean, I wasn't all that keen on Togepi's, but Togekiss was one of the many missteps that happened at the tail-end of Diamond and Pearl, an otherwise great season in my opinion, and that made it all the worse. Though I like May better, I felt Dawn was a better character in terms of her development as a Pokemon Coordinator, and her wins for the most part felt more legit and well-earned than May's overall, but then came Togekiss to flush that all down the toilet. Basically, right before the Grand Festival, the Pokemon League for Coordinators, Dawn was handed a free Togekiss, and it proved to an extremely powerful and capable Pokemon as you'd expect. Now, it really only got one battle in the Grand Festival against Zoey, Dawn's main rival, and it lost since Dawn couldn't win the Grand Festival because that'd be like Ash winning the Pokemon League, but for a season that did a great job at setting up plots and rivals, it was insulting that Dawn was handed such a powerful ace right at the end who took a spot that one of her other Pokemon she'd actually worked with through the show could've had. Togekiss also lacked any fun traits or personality, and it soured me on the end of Diamond and Pearl---I still haven't gotten around to watching the Pokemon League come to think of it, which is a shame because I hear it's one of the best leagues. Oh, remember how Princess Sarah in the Togepi episode was voiced by the actress who'd go on to play Dawn? Well, the person who gave Dawn Togekiss is named Princess Salvia---but, early episode summaries called her Princess Iris. It's commonly theorized that at the last minute the name was changed because a major character named Iris was going to appear in Black and White, though it may be a coincidence.