#113 - Chansey
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I always considered Chansey to be a relative to Jigglypuff and Clefairy, so I was shocked when it wasn't made Fairy-type in Gen VI---perhaps they didn't want to remove its Fighting-weakness for balance reasons? We've encountered two non-evolving Pokemon so far among the original 151, Farfetch'd and Lickitung, but Chansey is the first one that's decidedly good. Scratch that, decidedly great. With incredibly high HP and Special, Chansey wasn't just the top of the metagame back in the day, the metagame was basically built around countering its amazing ability to wall a huge number of Pokemon. However, on the other hand, a lot of kids probably didn't pick up on this when they first played through Red and Blue, because kids like me just wanted Pokemon who could hit fast, and could hit hard, and none of us ever considered using a defensive-based Pokemon, much less one that was pink. Getting a Chansey wasn't exactly easy, either, as the rarest Pokemon in the Safari Zone it could be a pain to catch, and you had to wait till post-E4 for a shot at capturing one normally in Cerulean Cave. After getting an evolution in Gen II, Chansey was kind of pushed aside until Gen V came and brought us the Eviolite, which made Chansey even more powerful than ever before in terms of its defensive capabilities, possibly even eclipsing its evolution. I wonder if Chansey would be nearly as popular if it wasn't so good?
Chansey is a pretty simple, amorphous Pokemon that's possibly one of the cutest among the original 151, or so most would say. I actually never thought it was that cute (I'd choose Pokemon like Venonat over it honestly), as I can't help but see it looking like a fat, balding man---it's one Pokemon I think whose design has gotten less appealing as time has gone on for some reason, but I can't really place why I think this. It feels like the older depictions of it had the hairs on its head look more feathery and cute, but nowadays they seem to be stiffer and look like, well, hair. I also feel the older incarnations had more of an expression that actually seemed joyful, while now when I look at it, such as in the new Sugimori Art, it almost looks like it's faking its smile and is secretly plotting something. Well, then again, that probably is quite befitting of it considering the type of playstyle it uses based around bringing the opponent to tears by blocking everything they throw at it, but once more I feel other Pokemon have a lot more endearing and lovable expressions than Chansey does. Chansey doesn't seem to be any animal exactly, but I feel like it was intended to be a really loose take on the idea of a mother hen. The egg within the pouch also brings to mind the "gachapon" capsule toys that are so popular in Japan, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee Chansey's eggs would sometimes act like the capsule item-containers found in that game as well. Chansey being a very rare, "lucky" Pokemon seems to fit alongside that motif, as many capsule machines tend to contain that one rare toy you try your hardest to get---which Chansey basically is as far as Pokemon go.
Within the pouch on Chansey's body is an egg, although the egg doesn't seem to be a fertilized Pokemon egg, rather it's merely an egg for eating and is said to be highly nutritious and extremely tasty. Like a lot of "lucky items", such as Shiny Pokemon, and Perfect IVs, the availability of the eggs is the inverse of how much you want them---purposefully chasing after Chansey for its eggs won't bring you much success, but when you're down and out, and really need them, Chansey is friendly enough to drop by and give you one, especially if you're injured. Chansey actually lays several eggs a day, but usually is seen carrying around just one---I'm not sure if that one egg is special, or if Chansey just picks one each day to carry around just in case it finds someone injured. In Generation II, the egg became its own item---the all important Lucky Egg that massively boosts EXP. Finding a Chansey was one thing, but finding one with a Lucky Egg was another matter entirely as they were extremely rare. If you transported a Chansey from Generation I, you ended up with a different item---Lucky Punch, which raises Chansey's critical hit ratio. This is basically pointless, and the item seems to be a joke on purpose---it looks silly, and sells for 5$, and there's no point in ever using one. Diamond and Pearl introduced another joke item, the Oval Stone which looked just like the Lucky Egg, but that actually has another purpose as we'll soon learn---anyway, like a lot of things, Game Freak finally gave in to player convenience and made the Lucky Egg quite easy to obtain in future games, removing the need to continuously farm Chansey.
In the anime, Chansey was popularized as the mascot Pokemon of the Pokemon Center, serving alongside Nurse Joy faithfully in every known Region excluding Unova, where a new Pokemon took its place, and Kalos, where Wigglytuff took up the mantle. Considering Chansey's nature, making it a nurse's assistant was a great choice, and I think its role in the show earned it a lot of fans although it's odd that a Pokemon said to be super-rare is actually extremely common to the point that every Pokemon Center across four regions has one. It seems like this was one element of the show the game would borrow, since it just made so much sense, but outside of Pokemon Yellow, directly influenced by the show, I don't believe we've ever seen any implication that the nurses in the games employ Chansey. I'd love if you saw Chansey sitting behind the counter in the games, it wouldn't add much, but it'd be a nice touch and pretty nostalgic. At the end of Diamond and Pearl, Brock got a Chansey of his own, which was perhaps a good closure to his final appearance as a main character---Brock had always had a pretty vague goal, but was shown to be skilled at helping Pokemon, so ending up with a Chansey and deciding to become a Pokemon doctor was probably a better ending than having him become a "Pokemon Breeder", which the show never really bothered to explain what that exactly entails.
#242 - Blissey
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Hey, how about we boost Chansey's HP by 5 just for kicks, and then up its Special Attack and Special Defense so it can be just that more annoying? And thus, Blissey was born, the Gen II Evolution of Chansey when its happiness is maxed out. Since its introduction, Blissey basically dominated the metagame as a major defensive element, and a cornerstone of basically every competitive team, until Generation V, where Eviolite was born and Chansey posed as competition. Nowadays, it seems which one you use is ultimately up to your style---Chansey has better defensive stats, but sacrifices its ability to hold an Item, whereas Blissey can use that to its advantage and make good use of Leftovers to keep itself steadily healthy. With the shift to a more offensive-oriented metagame, both Pokemon are under a lot of stress lately, but I can imagine Game Freak reversing this and introducing us to Mega Blissey soon enough---I'm ready for it, are you? Like many of the Cross-Generation Evolutions, Blissey has never been obtainable on its own, and thus to get one you'll need to score a Chansey first.
Blissey seems like it was designed with the happiness mechanic in mind, much more so than Crobat, given that it's known as the "Happiness Pokemon", and its Japanese name is "Happinas". As far as evolutions ago, especially Cross-Generation ones, it's pretty modest and feels like it could've been introduced alongside Chansey from the beginning---I actually think I like it a bit more than Chansey, personally. Blissey has a really angelic appearance, befitting its personality and abilities, and also, perhaps unintentionally, seems to borrow elements popularized by Nurse Joy from the show as it looks to have curly hair, and the white feathers around its waist brings to mind Joy's trademark apron. If you're heavily against the anime influencing the game, you might disagree, but I certainly think Game Freak did design Blissey with the relationship between Nurse Joy and Chansey in mind somewhat. Blissey basically shares the same motif as Chansey does, bestowing its eggs upon those who need them, but dials it up to 11---it will rush over to anyone it senses is upset, no matter how far the distance, just to share an egg with them. Eating Blissey's eggs are said to fill a person with, well, bliss. What a sweet, and caring individual---yet responsible for so, so, so much prolonged suffering if you happen to go up against one.
Blissey is a Pokemon of extremes, as not only does it have the highest HP in the game, it has the highest single stat as well at 255, followed by Chansey at 250. For the record, the highest Attack is 190, the highest Special Attack is 194, the highest Defense and Special Defense is 230, and the highest Speed is 180, so Blissey's ahead of everyone else by 25 points! Blissey also gives out a massive amount of EXP, although in most cases it's hard to take advantage of this as very few in-game Trainers actually use them---but of course, in ORAS, this changed due to being able to share Secret Base teams online complete with custom teams within, and as you can imagine all-Blissey teams have become quite popular. Blissey's too extreme for me though, I've never really had an interest in using one myself because it just seems like I'd be following the crowd, and there are hundreds of Pokemon, weaker than it, sure, who I'd rather train before it. It's not really my style either, to be honest. I don't think anyone should be hesistant to use a Pokemon they actually like though in fear of being labeled as a "poser", if your favorite Pokemon is Blissey, who cares if you might be accused of being a "no fun allowed Smogonite", use it! Some people will quote the old "use Pokemon you like" Karen mantra as an attack against people who use popular over-used Pokemon, ignoring the fact that these Pokemon do have fans because of their looks and general appearance, which is just as bad as those who criticize people who use their favorites. So, yeah, use who you want! Except Genies.
While Chansey has had numerous appearances in the show, Blissey oddly hasn't, failing to catch on in the show like its predecessor. There was one focus episode in Johto, a really cute episode that was based around Jessie and revealed she once trained as a nurse, but apparently there's only been one other time during the entire show that Blissey appeared under a Nurse Joy, rather randomly in a Diamond and Pearl episode in a minor support role. Why does the show hate Blissey so much?
#440 - Happiny
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The Chansey line is pretty weird, being a single-stage Pokemon in Generation I, a two-stage Pokemon in Generation II, and then getting a Baby in Generation IV. It really seems like Happiny probably should've come before Blissey, not after, but what's done is done. By this point in time, Baby Pokemon had been around for awhile, and Game Freak had introduced a new element in Gen III to explain future Baby Pokemon suddenly popping up---Incense. Excluding the Baby Pokemon introduced in Generation II, if you wanted to breed one of the new Baby Pokemon, the primary parent had to hold an Incense in order to hatch the new Baby, otherwise you'd be stuck with the regular first form i.e. Chansey. I think this was a good idea in theory, as some folks when breeding probably do want to hatch a Chansey instead of a Happiny and go through the trouble of evolving it, but the issue is instead of just making a single Incense item, every Pokemon have their own individual Incense, which can get annoying, but luckily they're not one-use. All the Incenses also have additional effects, the Luck Incense, Happiny's, acting like an Amulet Coin and doubling your prize money, so that also helps them not feel totally pointless. Baby Pokemon I feel got better after Generation II, where they often had unique moves their evolution did not and thus had more of a purpose---although none of Happiny's exclusive moves are that useful to Chansey. They also started to pop up in the Wild now, feeling better integrated into the Pokemon World, and now in Generation VI wild Baby Pokemon always have 3 IVs, perhaps finally justifying their existence. I actually like Happiny quite a bit, and feel it was a pretty good Baby---the fact that a motherly Pokemon like Chansey known for carrying around eggs hatched from one felt a bit off, and its stats and size made it easy for me to accept it had evolved from a smaller Pokemon.
Happiny is cute as fuck, I'll admit it. Most of the other Baby Pokemon, especially Pichu, Cleffa, and Igglybuff don't do much for me, but Happiny has got it going on---I think one reason is that I never really liked how Chansey looked, and Happiny honestly looks cuter, whereas those Baby Pokemon tried to hard to just copy the cuteness of their evolved forms who I did find cute. Does that make sense? The one issue I have with Happiny is its "pants", because they really do look like it's actually wearing pants that it could just remove if it wanted to whereas the clothing element of Blissey was well-integrated into its body. On the other hand, I appreciate what Game Freak was going with, the pants representing Chansey's pouch, and Happiny itself representing the egg inside of it, who is also holding its own "egg", like a nesting doll in a way. Although it kind of looks like Happiny is meant to have hatched from the egg Chansey is carrying around, I don't believe that is the case, as the eggs that Chansey lays don't seem to be for reproduction purposes. Furthermore, there's actually some ambiguity if Pokemon lay eggs...have you ever seen a Pokemon lay an egg? And no, I'm not just naive and taking the Daycare Man at face-value when I say that, there's an NPC in XY who offers up an interesting piece of lore, claiming Pokemon Eggs aren't actually eggs, but a type of cradle instead. What does this mean? I kind of have a feeling one day we'll get a Legendary, perhaps based around the stork, that might show us that Pokemon breeding really isn't as natural as we all think, but that's just my speculation.
By the way, that isn't actually an egg its carrying around, it's the Oval Stone. Happiny is the "Playhouse" Pokemon, but perhaps that should be the "play house" Pokemon, as in like a child it plays house and pretends to be an adult, mimicking Chansey by carrying a fake egg around. Kind of cute, but perhaps not that suitable in an era where archaic gender roles such as that are being torn down perhaps? That's actually how Happiny evolves, simply level it up while carrying the Oval Stone and, voila, you've got yourself a Chansey. Most wild Happiny actually carry around an Oval Stone (and is always part of their design too), so it's not particularly hard to find, and you can pretty much evolve Happiny right away after catching one. Sometimes Happiny will actually come with Lucky Eggs instead---it seems like carrying those around would also prepare them for adulthood and help them evolve, but sadly it doesn't work with a Lucky Egg. I feel they probably should've let Happiny evolve with either item since they both make sense. There's two little cute bits about Happiny I love, first that the PokeDex says it's basically like a small child, causing people to trip like a young child trying to help but just getting in the way, and being self-conscious about its curly hair. Ara ara~
Brock got a Happiny in Diamond and Pearl, which later evolved into his Chansey. As a Brock Pokemon, Happiny was pretty one-note, but it did have an amusing gimmick---it was crazily strong, being able to lift a 213.8 lb Pokemon with ease. But perhaps that's not that impressive, though, as a lot of characters in the Pokemon anime, such as Ash himself, are shown to be capable of superhuman feats of strength.