The latest episode of the Pokémon anime has featured a bizarre storyline, where a Pinsir falls in love with a Heracross and takes on cute anime characteristics, in a manner that’s sure to live in on your nightmares.
The current iteration of the Pokémon anime is Pokémon Journeys: The Series, where Ash travels around the world with a boy named Goh. Ash is competing in the Pokémon World Championships, while Goh wants to catch all of the Pokémon in the world. Goh currently has a Pinsir, who is extremely shy, despite its bulk.
In the most recent episode of Pokémon Journeys that has been broadcast in Japan, Ash and Goh attend a Pokémon trading event, where they run into a girl named Korotock Koromi, who is an accomplished Bug-type trainer from Sinnoh. Koromi is dressed like a Kricketune, whose Japanese name is Korotock. She badly wants to find a Pinsir and asks Goh if he will trade his own for a Heracross. Goh refuses but helps her try to catch one of her own. They go into the wilderness and run afoul of Team Rocket. Goh takes control of Heracross, who wipes the floor with Team Rocket and elicits a horrifying look of adoration from Pinsir, as seen below. In the end, Goh catches a second Pinsir and trades it for Koromi’s Heracross.
Pinsir was one of the original 151 Pokémon from Pokémon Red & Blue. The Kanto region had all kinds of cute Pokémon running around, but Pinsir wasn’t one of them. Pinsir is an angry-eyed bug monster with spiky horns and a freaky sideways mouth. Its design is memorable, but it’s not as appealing as some of the cute Kanto Pokémon, like Eevee or Pikachu.
One trick that animators use to try and make a character appealing is to give them big eyes, which is something seen in a lot of Disney and DreamWorks movies. It’s also seen a lot in Japanese animation. The big eyes technique works well in a lot of cases, but it’s creepy seeing them plastered on the monstrous form of Pinsir.
