#106 - Hitmonlee & #107 - Hitmonchan
Fighting & Fighting
Thought it'd be fitting to do these two together---they're actually unique among all the Pokemon in that they're the only Pokemon who were ever linked together after their introduction by a shared Baby, although in Generation I most folks figured they were somehow related due to their similar names, stats, and appearances. I do wonder if they were always intended to be linked together, and Game Freak was saving it for a future game, or if it was a decision made after the fact and because fans were requesting a "canon" relationship between the two? These two were likely the most popular Fighting-type Pokemon in Generation I, obtainable through a rather easy side-quest around the mid-point of the game, but you could only pick one---this was probably the hardest choice next to choosing your Starter in the entire game because both Pokemon were rather cool. Throughout Pokemon history, these two have been rather rare Pokemon...I don't think they've ever appeared in the Wild, and the only way to get them outside of Generation I and FRLG is to evolve a Tyrogue, which means you'll always have to choose between the two (well...three actually), although of course with breeding the choice isn't as difficult to make as it originally was. You know, I always thought these guys were really good, but it's surprising to learn in Generation I they were considered the weakest Fighting-type Pokemon basically---and the years have only been moderately kind to them.
I consider the two of them the quintessential Fighting-type Pokemon alongside the Machop-line, the first Pokemon most people think of when they hear Fighting-type. Like most Fighting-type Pokemon they're vaguely humanoid, to the point that Hitmonchan is pretty clearly wearing clothing, but have enough monstrous elements to keep them from feeling too humanoid compared to some other human-shape Pokemon, and they specialize in a specific form of combat, in this case kick-boxing and boxing. As everyone knows, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are named after the two most well-known martial artists among Westerners, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Bruce Lee is dead, so he can't really offer an opinion on it, but I'm pretty sure Jackie Chan knows---I swear I remember one of the interview segments at the end of KidsWB's "Jackie Chan Adventures" had him actually comment on this but I can't find a source on this, so I probably imagined that. Luckily, unlike Uri Geller and Kadabra, this hasn't led to any legal issues. You know, Bruce Lee works well enough for Hitmonlee, but naming a boxer of all things after Jackie Chan is actually pretty dumb---but Nintendo of America probably didn't want to name him after Mike Tyson, although Nintendo of France actually did just that as he's called Tygnon (Tyson + thump) over there. In Japan, the two of them have completely different names---the "hitmon" was created by the localization, and their names over there are Sawamura and Ebiwara, the names being linked due to both ending in the katakana of "ラー", an extended "ra" sound. Hitmonlee, "Sawamura", is named after "The Demon of Kickboxing" Tadashi Sawamura, while Hitmonchan, "Ebiwara", is named after Hiroyuki Ebihara, the first flyweight boxing champion ever certified by the World Boxing Council. It's no surprise the localization changed these though since they're people who basically no one outside of Japan, especially children, would be familiar with, and I wonder if even Japanese kids knew right off the bat who they were named for. It's the opposite situation for the Japanese names compared to the English names, incidentally, as Bruce Lee and Hiroyuki Ebihara are dead, whereas Tadashi Sawamura and Jackie Chan are still living. By the way, I'm shocked that Game Freak never actually created Pokemon inspired by Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, they both seem pretty ripe to base Pokemon off of...
And now let's look at the them individually, starting with Hitmonlee, who I feel was always the most popular in both looks and strength. Hitmonlee has one of the simpler designs among Fighting-type Pokemon, a weird "headless" humanoid creature with spring-like ligaments that I imagine are meant to resemble the tape that fighters will wrap around their body to protect from injuries. There are numerous creatures throughout the world's mythologies that resemble Hitmonlee, humanoids that were said to have eyes on their chest and no actual head, and he also seems to draw inspiration from the Ashinaga-jin, a Yokai known for having extremely long legs but relatively weak and short arms., although Hitmonlee can use his arms fairly well based on some of the attacks he's capable of learning. Hitmonlee's main gimmick is of course its role as the "Kick Master", the "Kicking Fiend", a term I recall the show used, which I imagine was originally a reference to the "Demon of Kickboxing" title Sawamura is known for. Maybe it was literally that in the Japanese version but they edited out the "demon"? Its legs are extremely powerful and limber, and they can stretch to amazing lengths to take opponents by surprise.
Hitmonlee I believe was, and still is, considered the stronger among the two original Hitmon due to being more offensively orientated than Hitmonchan, which is really how most Fighting-type Pokemon, especially in the earlier days, probably should be. Hitmonlee originally had a boat-load of signature moves: Mega Kick (only he can learn it without a TM or Move Tutor from Gen 1/FRLG), Jump Kick (only seven other Pokemon can learn it), Hi Jump Kick (a stable of quite a few Fighting-type Pokemon now), and Rolling Kick, which became a shared signature move with his Gen II evolutionary relative and breedable to Machop and Elekid. But really, Hi Jump Kick is all you really need! Hitmonlee never got an Ability that specifically powered up "kick" moves, rather he was given Reckless, which powers up moves with recoil damage, specifically meant to be used in conjunction with Jump Kick and Hi Jump Kick which have exactly that if they miss. This has become the best strategy with him it seems---god, do I love Hi Jump Kick, best move in the game as far as I'm concerned---although in Gen V it was using the one-use item "Fighting Gem" in conjunction with his other Ability, Unburden, which boosted his speed when the Fighting Gem is used.Gen VI removed the gems except for the Normal Gem, making this strategy legally impossible, presumably in order to help balance things out---well, maybe, this was the Generation that also went ahead and introduced stuff like Mega Alakazam.
And then there's Hitmonchan, who I think you could argue is one of the oddest looking Pokemon introduced in Generation 1, and even to this day still kind of bugs me. Hitmonlee has this really sleek, simplistic design, but then you have this dude who looks like he's some fashion victim of the 80s with huge shoulder pads and a skirt. Yeah, people have always tried to write it off as a "tunic", but in my opinion no matter how you try and spin it, Hitmonchan is dressed like Billy Jean King training for a fight with Raoh. I remember a lot of folks were pretty surprise when it turned out to be an all-male species in Generation II, when I think a lot of folks identified it as a female Pokemon actually even though its anime voice was pretty deep and all. A lot of people are bothered by it wearing boxing gloves at birth, but that's the least of its problems. That being said, I think most people forgive Hitmonchan due to its role as a classic Pokemon, and I sort of think being paired with Hitmonlee helped it a bit as the latter's popularity and cool design seems to have rubbed off on it. Still, I think it's the weakest of the Hitmon-trio in terms of design, and probably one of my least favorite Fighting-type designs. Unlike Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan doesn't appear to stem from any mythological creature---there's a counterpart to the Ashinaga-jin known for having long arms and short legs, but Hitmonchan's body overall is pretty balanced in terms of length, so I don't think that's what they were going for. Hitmonchan is simply a boxer, and there's some little references to this hidden in its design---it's said to take breaks every three minutes during a fight, like the length of rounds in a boxing match, and its Shiny gives it blue boxing gloves, referencing the red and blue corner. Oh, and its head is shaped like a hand, if you never picked that up. The PokeDex claims Hitmonchan has the "spirit of a boxer" within it, and I wonder if this is meant to actually be Hiroyuki Ebihara, its namesake in Japan, who died a few years before Red and Green were released? Kind of morbid if you think about it...
In the games, Hitmonchan was a pretty gimmicky Pokemon, having amazing coverage from the get-go with Ice Punch, Fire Punch, and Thunder Punch, although given that they were special moves originally it couldn't make much use of them, and its slow speed meant a lot of Pokemon could easily get a good hit in before it could strike back, but it got a bit better thanks to the Ability Iron Fist, increasing the power of all the punch moves it's capable of using, and the miracle of the Physical/Special split in Generation IV, which finally allowed it to make good use of the Elemental Punches. But even with all this, it doesn't seem Hitmonchan is all that good, as the buffs it has gotten is the kind of stuff many of the newer Fighting-types had right out of the gate, so it's got a lot of training to do to catch up with them. With its extensive Type Coverage, though, it'd make a pretty cool Pokemon to use during the main game, but unfortunately there's been no game since the Physical/Special split where it's been readily available during the main adventure, so most folks probably haven't really used it for this purpose.
In the show, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan tend to appear alongside one another, most famously in the "Punchy Pokemon" where Hitmonchan served as the "face" and Hitmonlee as the "heel"...I wouldn't be surprised if this episode influenced future players to pick Hitmonchan over Hitmonlee, since the former was shown to be stronger and more heroic than the latter. They've made a few minor appearances since then individually, but usually they appear alongside one another whenever they appear in a central role, sometimes as allies, other times as rivals. It wasn't till the Battle Frontier season that they actually reference the Saffron Fighting Dojo where you got them from in Generation I, somewhat, in "Pasta La Vista", in which the dojo's master challenged his son to a battle between the two Hitmons in order to decide if he'd take over the dojo, or open a noodle-shop instead. Yeah, not exactly the same plot in the games, but close enough? By the way, Pasta La Vista was the last episode of the show that used the 4Kids voice-actors before PUSA took over with "Fear Factor Phony". Somewhat of a morbid fact is that Meowth's voice-actor Maddie Blaustein directly referenced this in this episode, having Meowth actually say "Team Rocket's Blaustein off again", which took on a new meaning following her death not too long after.
#236 - Tyrogue
Fighting
Another Baby Pokemon---but unlike Pichu, Cleffa, and Igglybuff, I think this is one who was probably needed as Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan definitely felt like fully-evolved Pokemon, and many fans wanted them to be officially linked, so Game Freak gave us this dude, Tyrogue! Tyrogue is obtained from an NPC character late during the Johto journey, and is the only way to obtain Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan outside of trading them over from Generation I. Tyrogue itself is quite weak, and like most Baby Pokemon isn't worth using, but evolves into either Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan based on its stats, the only Pokemon to evolve through this method. If the Attack is higher upon reaching Level 20, it evolves into Hitmonlee, but if its Defense is higher, it evolves into Hitmonchan instead, although technically Hitmonchan's Attack is higher than its Defense, but you get the gist. A neat evolution method, but unfortunately many players likely left this up to chance, not understanding how stats were influenced or raised back during the Generation II days where the more complex elements of Pokemon were hidden behind the scenes for the most part. Of course, the easiest way to go about this was to raise Tyrogue to Level 19, and use the Vitamins to manipulate the stats, but overall this probably wasn't the most intuitive evolution method. By the time you get Tyrogue in Generation II, you're already close to the Elite Four, so I imagine a lot of folks didn't want to bother training Tyrogue up to use on their team, especially since Johto had like no good places to train at, so most probably boxed it, and if they wanted one of the Hitmons, they probably just traded them over from Red and Blue.
Tyrogue doesn't seem to be named after anyone in particular---some say he's the one named after Tyson, but I think it's obviously a portmanteau of "tyke" and "rogue"---and even his Japanese name just seems to be a pun on "bulky". Tyrogue's theme seems to be a youthful fighter, and his overall design brings to mind a school-age wrestler, the little circles on the side of his head together with his spikes giving the impression he's wearing a helmet, and thus he doesn't fight with any specific ligament, he's all about using his entire body to take down the foe. Tyrogue loves to train, and is full of energy, so he's not a Pokemon just anyone can use---if you choose to raise a Tyrogue, be prepared to be ready for rigorous, daily training. And if you think about it, this is reflected quite well in Tyrogue's stats as they're so low, and he has so very few attacks, that the player really will have to do some serious grinding with Tyrogue to help him evolve, especially in Generation II without all the quick level-up tricks available.
Tyrogue's a Pokemon that's grown on me only recently, I always thought his Gold and Silver sprite made him look like some weird robot, and his original Sugimori Art was also pretty dull and lacked the coolness factor of Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee. Then I saw the Heart Gold and Soul Silver artwork, seen here, with him in a badass wrestling pose, and I realized what a cool looking Pokemon he actually was when he wasn't in a lame, static pose. This is one Sugimori Art I can definitely say without a doubt is an improvement of the original, and I wish more of his recent art had the same oomph that Tyrogue shows instead of the relaxed pose they tend to be in now. Since Tyrogue evolves into both Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, he was purposefully given elements of both---Hitmonlee's "tape" and three-fingered hands, and Hitmonchan's...everything else. Seriously, maybe it's just me, but whenever I look at Tyrogue, I can see him evolving into Hitmonchan, but Hitmonlee seems like a bit of a stretch. Perhaps they should've left off the mouth, or gave him Hitmonlee's eyes, but either way it makes me question if Tyrogue was always intended to evolve into both, or if at one point Hitmonlee had his own Baby, but it was cut for space, and they hurriedly changed Tyrogue to kind of look like Hitmonlee. Actually we'll talk more about this with our next Pokemon...
Tyrogue only had one major appearance all the way back in Johto, "Tyrogue Full of Trouble", which featured the NPC from the game who owned Tyrogue, Kiyo, who was also the Dojo Master from Generation I, although he was nameless then (and the original localization of FR/LG called him Koichi, this was fixed in HGSS though), and in the show this part wasn't mentioned and he instead was training under Chuck. I really like this episode, as it ends with a cool fight between Tyrogue and Kiyo as he attempts to tame the troublesome Pokemon and in a way, you can kind of see this episode as possibly serving as a "backstory" to why he has Tyrogue in the games. On the other hand, this episode is infuriating as Kiyo mentions the P1 Grand Prix, and there's a Primeape in the episode in a supporting role, but no mention of Ash's is made whatsoever, nor does anyone remember him winning the tournament. Why?
#237 - Hitmontop
Fighting
I imagine during the programming of Tyrogue, someone at Game Freak perhaps realized there was an issue if it ended up having an equal Attack and Defense upon evolution, and thus the solution was to create a third "Hitmon". Well, maybe Hitmontop was always planned, but he always felt like the odd one out among the three---getting the Attack and Defense to equal out is pretty frustrating, especially when raising one with a specific Nature/EV spread in mind, and I imagine there were very few folks who actually got one on their own when they originally played Gold and Silver. The only Hitmontop I ever owned, for instance, was the one from Pokemon Colosseum. Maybe it's slightly easier now with Super Training and all, but I've yet to bother evolving one, I'd just pick one off the GTS. Despite being sort of off-kilter, Hitmontop has held a strong niche among the competitive scene unlike the other two due to being a great Rapid Spinner to take care of all the hazards common in the metagame, but from my understanding Generation VI hasn't been exactly kind to it, but it hasn't been completely dethroned.
Hitmontop was designed in the same vein of Tyrogue, to serve as a "balance" between Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, and thus he's based around the concept of a top, as well as the Brazilian art of capoeira which influenced his Japanese name, Kapoerer. Unlike the other three, Hitmontop looks far less humanoid, and actually pretty cute---I always thought he kind of resembled a dog with his hair looking a bit like floppy ears, and his cute, beady eyes. In fact, Hitmontop is easily my favorite of the three, and it's a shame I've never got around to using one because I don't want to deal with the evolution method. Hitmontop is all about spinning, he spins faster than he walks, and it's said if he spins too fast, he'll even spin right into the ground like a drill! Despite that last bit, though, I don't believe he's ever actually been able to learn any "drill moves", but it's not like he really needs to so this doesn't bother me much. Generation VI really messed up by having Hitmontop dance around on his feet instead of on his head like he did in every other game, and I have no clue what Game Freak was thinking when they decided upon that. He's a Pokemon that's all about spinning on his head, how difficult is it to get that right? I know there's 721+ Pokemon to model, and Hitmontop isn't vital to either Gen VI game, but that's just one example of many little issues I think put a lot of people off during the switch to 3D.
You know, have you ever noticed Hitmontop looks like he could've been the Baby form to Hitmonlee like Tyrogue is to Hitmonchan? Hitmontop shares way more visual elements with Hitmonlee than he does to Hitmonchan, and doesn't look much like Tyrogue either. Furthermore, he's all about kicking, so despite being a Pokemon intended to be "between the two", he leans more so towards resembling Hitmonlee. I really wonder if there was a time where Hitmontop, perhaps slightly smaller and weaker, was intended to be the pre-evolution of Hitmonlee opposite Tyrogue, but during development it was decided they'd share a Baby since that made more sense, and Hitmontop was spun off into a new evolution instead. Well, that's just a theory, but look at Hitmontop and tell me you can't see that theory making sense....he's actually about the same size as Hitmonlee, but the latter looks much taller and larger due to having a lankier body while Hitmontop could easily pass for a "child" Pokemon. Alternatively, I wonder if Hitmontop was just going to be another Pokemon at one point and was quickly changed a bit to fit into the Hitmon line, despite having his own thing going on. This theory actually has some basis, because there's an old Japanese magazine, MicroGroup Game Review, released before Gold and Silver in 1997 that shows three prototype Pokemon---one clearly became Tyranitar, another is believed to be an early version of a Gen V Pokemon, and finally there's a strange, Clefairy-looking dude with a top-theme going on that most folks assume became Hitmontop. But I imagine most Pokemon actually have gone through a lot of changes behind the scenes, so it's hard to really claim Hitmontop was just "thrown in".
Hitmontop doesn't seem as popular as the other Hitmon in the show, and has more single appearances outside of the group, but still has appeared alongside the other two such as in "Pasta La Vista", and memorably at the very end of Johto under the ownership of a gang of Hitmon-using punks who kept messing with Ash and Co., even following Misty back to her Gym and causing trouble in one of the Pokemon Chronicles episodes. Its original focus episode in Johto oddly enough just had Hitmonlee, which it battled against, and Hitmonchan was oddly absent, one of the few times the original duo was absent in favor of just Hitmontop and one of the others.
