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#203 - Girafarig
Normal/Psychic
Johto had a lot of weird, throwaway single-stage Pokemon, but all the previous ones we've covered Game Freak actually paid attention to in Generation IV by introducing new evolutions for them---however there are those poor Johto Pokemon who Game Freak basically forgot about, and didn't get shit. Here's Girafarig, one of the four most hated Johto Pokemon by fans by my estimate and a pretty bizarre Pokemon all around with very little mainstream appeal. Girafarig's biggest claim-to-fame is being the first non-Flying dual-Normal Pokemon, which would be pretty cool and perhaps "useful" on a Pokemon with good stats, but Girafarig is a middle-of-the-road Pokemon so the Typing just becomes another part of its unappealing character. Future Generations could've fixed this perhaps by giving it a unique Ability to spice things up, but its two default Abilities Inner Focus and Early Bird are rather generic and not particularly interesting, though its Hidden Ability, Sap Sipper, at least gives it an immunity to Grass-type attacks. On the plus side, Girafarig isn't shoved into the post-game or made into a swarm Pokemon, it's a common encounter on a late Johto route so you still have plenty of time to use it if you have a hankering for an unorthodox Psychic-type Pokemon, and it learns a decent amount of moves. In the competitive scene though, it's generally agreed upon to be pretty pointless as it's most useful role, Baton Passing, can be done by plenty of other Pokemon far better, and that number grows each and every Generation. Game Freak oddly enough stuck this Pokemon in both the Ruby and Sapphire and Diamond and Pearl Regional Dexes though, just in case you wanted to give this Pokemon another shot.
Girafarig is of course a giraffe (its name is a palindrome, by the way), though it's important to note that in the East, giraffes have an additional element of lore to them---they're associated with the mythological dragon known as the Quilin, and in Japan the word "kirin" (as in Kirinriki, Girafarig's Japanese name) now refers to both the legendary creature and the actual animal. None of this matters because Girafarig doesn't appear to have any elements of a Quilin, nor does it really have much to do with a giraffe besides its appearance and being a herbivore. It kind of resembles due to its smaller size the other extant member of the Giraffidae the Okapi---and come to think of it, it's kind of got Drowzee's color-scheme basically going on. I feel like a giraffe is a pretty "Pokemon" animal as it is, and didn't really need much changed to fit into the world. A spotted yellow animal with a long neck and horns on its head---hello, the perfect Electric-type Pokemon! So it's quite odd that Game Freak went so out-of-the-box with it. I like when they do that usually, especially if it's a Pokemon based on an obscure concept, but on the other hand with ones based on animals, and the only representative of that animal, perhaps simplicity is best. To be fair I actually do kind of like Girafarig, perhaps out of pity, and I feel something like a new evolution or a major role in the show could easily push me into being a fan of it, but as it stands I'm not surprised this Pokemon has very few fans.
So, you've probably seen it before, but there's some concept art of various Generation II Pokemon floating around that can be seen on Bulbagarden. It's apparently legit as far as I know and gathered from Japanese sites far before Pokemon really took off worldwide, or hell prior to the days before the majority of English fans regularly browsed Japanese sites, but anyway it seems originally Girafarig was simply a giraffe with two heads, basically like CatDog, except, uh, GiraffeGiraffe. I felt this was a decent idea on its own, so why did they change it up so much that we ended up with Girafarig sporting a Chain Chomp for a tail? It's apparently a somewhat sentient head that mimics Girafarig when it chews, and will bite at foes from behind, but, just, why does a giraffe have this concept? Girafarig's Normal/Psychic-typing also confuses me---the PokeDex mentions the tail has powers to drive away the enemy, suggesting it's the Psychic-type, but everywhere else it seems Gifarig's source of Psychic-powers come from the horns on its head. It learns a decent amount of Dark-type moves, and it feels like to me Dark/Psychic would've made far more sense. So many weird choices for this Pokemon. I'm honestly surprised it didn't get an evolution in Generation IV because the motif for an evolution is RIGHT THERE---have the tail grow into a full body like the original concept art. Knowing Game Freak, we'll probably get a Baby for it first.
Girafarig's debut Johto episode, "The Psychic Sidekicks", was promoted by 4kids as a "Lost Episode"---I don't know why, but they went on a hiatus for a bit during the first Johto season and delayed this episode. It wasn't banned or anything like that, they just skipped it at first and re-aired it later. Not that you're missing much---I mean it's a filler episode focused on Girafarig---but it's never been released on Region 1 VHS or DVD apparently, so if you're a Girafarig fans, you're out of luck. In the Hoenn League Ash's friend/rival Morrison had one but during their fight, Morrison basically couldn't bring himself to fight his friend so didn't order Girafarig to do anything, thus the poor Pokemon lost in seconds. Lyra also had one in Diamond and Pearl when she joined Ash and co., but her Girafarig had literally one short scene breaking open a door. Even the show can't seem to salvage this poor fellow.
