-I'm intrigued at the starter evolutions, especially since none of them look quite as organic as Servine, Pignite and Dewott. I think this is a good thing, because I like seeing 3 stage Pokémon where the middle stage doesn't look exclusively like the teen years of the basic form (though they all kind of look like teens still). Hariboogu is SO CUTE. It looks like a throw pillow that doubles as a mace, and Chespin's goofy cheeriness is apparently timeless. Just look at that smile X3. What I like about Teeruna(Tailunar?) is the devotion to Fennekin's fluff(the biological information, not the ear hair). Fennekin already has an obsession with twigs, as we were told that she likes to eat them and carry extras around for later snacking. Now, her favorite snack has become a part of her evolved form as it looks to be used as a wand, or some sort of dowsing device to heighten her latent psychic powers. Also, the ruffled fur around her neck and waist makes me think of Kiki's delivery service and other young witches, for somereason. Gekogashira reminds me of Sasuke from Naruto before the shippuden saga, which bugs me a bit. However, I want to see it in action before I start passing it off.
MegaMewtwo-X (or I guess MMX, if that and MMY are commonplace yet) is another great interpretation on modern mutant-monsters. I'm impressed by the added bands/cords around his extremities, but I don't get Gamefreak's obsession with a curled tip. MMX's tail and MMY's hair both end in a little curled coif, it looks so inoffensive XD.
When I saw MegaGarchomp at first, I went "woah, that looks pretty mega". I kind of wish they would have added something more interesting to its back, though. Looking at it during battle must be devastatingly boring.
Torimian was the only Pokémon besides Chespin that I was dying to have ever since...well, last week when the Easter egg was discovered. I got such a strong vibe from it, I could feel that it was going to have some game importance. And wouldn't you know it, IT DOES. Turns out, it's an untrimmed poodle(amazaaaah) that you can take to get groomed(two of its styles work for this year's Fall fashion, yay!) Nyaonikusu(which I guess is Espurr) actually makes me think of Espers in varying continuities just by their color schemes, hair and calculated poses. They're like Precure fairis with a serious demeanor, they're so perfect! Chigorasu's ability excites me for the sake of gameplay, but I'm sketchy on the competitive use of Crunch with a power up, and Amarusu, while not spectacular in the type matchups, kind of makes up for it with it's ability. Assuming it has access to ANY of the viable Normal moves, it's evolved form may have it's uses (can you imagine an Ice type Explosion? omigod, I'm almost hoping that it gets Explosion). One more note on the fossil Pokémon; they both remind me of Spectrobes.
-Also, Litleo's evolution's profile shot pleases me greatly. Yay for aesthetic appeal!
(It also reminds me of Spectrobes)
I'm a bit disappointed in the Fairy type matchups, but I was quietly dreading it when I got to thinking that they picked Pokémon and movesets that could only hit Fairy types for neutral damage during that expo with the Politoed vs Sylveon fiasco. I was kind of hoping that it would interact with more of the elemental attributes (Fire, Water, Grass, Flying, Rock, Ground, Electric) instead of being another heavy applied type that gets mixed in with Psychic, Fighting and Dark. Even having/giving some resistances to Rock, Flying or so on would have made it feel more "right", but maybe they wanted it to look a little more meta and only give it interactions with seven different types -sigh-
-However, I do believe that, because of the updated type chart, Gengar will remain in OU with little effort. I don't believe that Dark types are automatically worse because of their falling prey to Fairy-types, but how many people really want to use Dark-types regularily at this point simply because they're Dark-types when Gengars already fear other Gengars?
Moving on from that and going into the plot related stuff, I wanna know a little more about this actress, Karen. Does she sponsor this boutique where you can change your clothes? Is she any more important after beating her in a battle and gaining access to changing your outfit(she certainly looks like it)? Team Flare's five bosses...I feel like that should come from a strong political/religious basis, but I can't pinpoint anything with five principles/generals/rules/hooplahs. Maybe there are five unwritten rules to looking beautiful? I wanna know what they're doing here...