063: Abra

This family’s an odd bunch. As much as I like the line, I’ve seldom paid it mind and have yet to use it in one of my ingame teams. I’d love to give them a whirl, but the awkwardness of acquiring an Abra that will teleport away on the first turn it you don’t successfully catch it, along with training up said weak Abra, and then it having a trade evolution later on are all roadblocks vs. just picking up a Pokemon and using it.

The elusive Abra is a cute monster sort of thing, as weird as it looks. It’s KIND OF like a fox? That’s the popular theory, anyway. Which wouldn’t be impossible, it and the Keaton Mask from Majora’s Mask look quite similar, so there may be some connection there. But maybe that’s just coincidence. Despite it looking mammalian, it looks like it has an exoskeleton. It’s hard telling, this is Gen 1 after all.

I do like the idea that it just sleeps most of the time and teleports away when it senses danger. Which would be a sensible defense mechanism for something with psychic powers.

Personal Score: 7/10

Cute for what it is.

064: Kadabra

Kadabra’s quite a cool, psychic monster. The star on its forehead seems like a bit of an out of place detail, but whatever. Its a simple color scheme that the red adds a nice little splash to. I like it. I also liked the “sleeping psychic” aspect of Abra that sadly Kadabra doesn’t develop on. But all that said, I can’t deny Kadabra’s just cool-looking.

Kadabra’s actually based on a specific magician, its Japanese name being named after Uri Geller in Japan, who claimed to be able to bend spoons with his mind. This has gotten Gamefreak in quite a bit of trouble though, as Geller wasn’t too pleased with how he was depicted in the Pokemon world, calling it an evil, occult character, and attempted to sue. Which is why Kadabra’s not been in the TCG since Gen 3, with them trying to avoid that controversy again. Though that’s not stopped Abra and Alakazam from showing up, just in ways that allow them to skip Kadabra as an evolutionary step.

Personal Score: 7.5/10

That aside, it’s a neat beastie.

065: Alakazam

I think Kadabra was too fast an escalation from Abra, because then when it came to evolving Kadabra to Alakazam, there was already a lot there for it to build off of. Because honestly, Alakazam actually detracts A LOT of Kadabra’s cool bits. All the red is gone, its huge tail disappears, but I suppose it traded those in for a cooler shaped head… And another spoon. Worth?

The resemblance to a fox are for the most part gone as well, which is what makes me doubt the similarities in the first two were there for that purpose. A secondary theory is that he line are based on goats. Which, it’s funny they say that, with that upside-down star shaped head if theirs.

Yyyyyyyyyeah. If you weren’t there for Pokemon in the 90s, THAT didn’t blow over very well in the US of A. I don’t think there’s any denying the resemblance to the pentagram there. Is it on purpose? Seems likely. Something tells me to doubt anyone at Gamefreak are gonna admit if it is or not.

I was pretty young and sheltered from these things back when Pokemon was new, but in the early 80s and 90s, even leaking a bit into the early 2000s, just about anything that got popular with kids enough to catch the attention of fundamentalist rights was quickly accused of something that was teaching kids how to serve the devil. Star Wars? Satanic. TMNT? Satanic. Bionicle? Super Satanic. Furbies??? Okay, well, yeah they’d be right on that one.

I’m one of the fortunate ones that didn’t have their pretty Christian family buy into it. Let it say something about these goobers when my Grandmother is VERY Christian and called these people idiots. You go, Grandma. But tragically, I wouldn’t be surprised if this demonizing has lead to some kids not being permitted to enjoy Pokemon.

We saw a diet version of when Pokemon Go exploded in the middle of last year. The old grumpy Right wing dudes got into another fuss about how Pokemon Go is apparently summoning “Digital Demons” inside of churches. Though to my knowledge it didn’t escalate to anywhere near as bad as it did before other than that. Most of it was stuff like there where the Right wing was just being mad because younger people had the audacity of enjoying themselves.

…And it honestly IS hardly nothing more than that group of people getting overly upset that something out of their control is a hit with kids and them doing their best to shut it down. Pokemon blew up with these demonic accusations back during the first Pokemon blow-up, and then the second Pokemon blow-up with the release of Pokemon Go last year, but in-between both, well after Pokemon’s hype had died down, we got a literal, far-less-subtle-than-Alakazam’s-Satan-Face Poke-God that didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.

BUT I just brushed on the surface level of that. Bogleech pretty much covered the whole thing in his own Abra family review, so read up on that if you wanna see more. The 90s was a wild time.

Personal Score: 7.5/10

EEEEEVIIIIIL

Mega Alakazam

I got mixed feelings about this Mega. Mega Alakazam fixes my problems with regular Alakazam, but only a little bit. The extra spoons may or may not be a bit much. I like the beard, making it look like an old wizard. Something about Mega Alakazam doesn’t look as good though. I think it’s more or less because it’s more wizard-like, but in a pretty predictable way with very little spin to it. But now that Sun and Moon gave us Pokedex entries for Mega Evolutions, and telling us that ALL of its energy is put into its psychic powers, and how none of its muscles have the strength to keep the thing standing. That’s pretty metal.

Also, is its head the Star of David now? What the hell is going on with this line?!

Personal Score: 7.5/10

In a pre-Sun and Moon world, this probably would’ve been a 7/10. The Pokedex entry by itself earned it at least half a point back.

Overall:

Man controversy isn’t kind to this line. It’s almost like that’s part of their evolutionary path. It goes from mild annoyance in a video game to Symbol of Demonic Powers in just two stages! But controversy be damned, they’re pretty cool anyway.

Also, SHAAAAAME that Alakazam be one entry too short to be Pokemon number 66.

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