Real-world species analogues, according to Pokemon Kids TV

Mathy

Mathy

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I've heard many people say that Trubbish is confirmed a cat, because of it featuring in apparently cat-themed official artwork and merchandise by Kino Takahashi. However, this is pure speculation. There is nothing indicating that every Pokemon here is meant to be a cat. In fact, the only mention of "cat" at all is on a tweet mentioning Cat Day.

You know what does count as confirmation of a real-world species analogue? Directly addressing the Pokemon as that species.

If you didn't know, TPC runs a Cocomelon clone called "Pokemon Kids TV", and one of the things it uploads is music videos of nursery rhymes featuring Pokemon. Since nursery rhymes come from the real world, they'll no doubt mention real-world animals, and TPC needs to pick Pokemon to animate to represent these animals. What follows shortly is a tier list of each of those picks I could find and how much it surprised me. I tried to be reasonable in my assumptions that the speaker is referring to the Pokemon currently on screen. I also skipped generic categories like "bird", "fish" and "lizard".

Small aside, the nursery rhymes often get translated from English to Japanese and vice-versa. The convention seems to be to keep the animal references in the original language but change all references to Pokemon in translation. Thus, "Over in the Meadow" is about real animals in English, but Pokemon in Japanese, and "Usagi, Usagi" is about, well, rabbits (translator's note: usagi means rabbit) in Japanese, but Pokemon in English. There are some exceptions, like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", which might just already have a widely adopted Japanese translation, and "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone", which changes "dog" to various Pokemon despite having its original title. I'm only looking at the original versions.

Pretty obvious or well-known
Squirtle is a turtle (うらしまたろう, うさぎとかめ)
Rattata is a rat (Over in the Meadow)
Butterfree is a butterfly (ちょうちょう)
Pikachu is a mouse (Hickory Dickory Dock)
Raichu and Pichu are mice (Over in the Meadow)
Vulpix is a fox (こぎつね)
Meowth is a kitten (Three Little Kittens)
Psyduck and Golduck are ducks (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, and Politoed are frogs (かえるのがっしょう)
Ponyta is a horse (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Magikarp is a carp (ふるさと)
Spinarak is a spider (Itsy Bitsy Spider)
Mareep is a lamb (Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Azumarill is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Teddiursa is a bear (The Bear Went Over the Mountain)
Miltank is a cow (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Torchic is a chick (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Seedot is an acorn (どんぐりころころ)
Spoink and Grumpig are pigs (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Barboach is a loach (どんぐりころころ)
Kricketot and Kricketune are crickets (むしのこえ)
Combee and Vespiquen are bees (ぶんぶんぶん, Over in the Meadow)
Pachirisu is a squirrel (ゆりかごのうた)
Cherrim is a cherry blossom (ちょうちょう)
Buneary is a rabbit (うさぎとかめ, ふるさと, うさぎ うさぎ)
Croagunk and Toxicroak are frogs (かえるのがっしょう)
Pidove is a pigeon (はとぽっぽ)
Joltik and Galvantula are spiders (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Over in the Meadow)
Fennekin is a fox (こぎつね)
Froakie, Frogadier, and Greninja are frogs (かえるのがっしょう)
Bunnelby is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Litten is a kitten (Three Little Kittens)
Dewpider is a spider (Itsy Bitsy Spider)
Stufful is a bear (The Bear Went Over the Mountain)
Grookey is a monkey (Five Little Monkeys)
Scorbunny is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Corvisquire is a crow (ゆうやけこやけ)
Corviknight is a crow (Over in the Meadow)
Nickit is a fox (こぎつね)
Wooloo and Dubwool are sheep (Over in the Meadow)
Polteageist is a teapot (I'm a Little Teapot)
Sprigatito is a kitten (Three Little Kittens)
Quaxly and Quaxwell are ducks (Five Little Ducks)
Tarountula is a spider (Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Unexpected, but I agree
Bulbasaur is a frog (かえるのがっしょう)
Raticate is a muskrat (Over in the Meadow)
Azurill is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Fletchling and Talonflame are robins (Over in the Meadow)
Goomy and Goodra are snails (かたつむり)

At least somewhere in the ballpark
Pidgey is a pigeon (はとぽっぽ)
Fearow and possibly Dodrio are turkeys (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Sneasel is a cat (ゆき)
Plusle and Minun are rabbits (うさぎ うさぎ)
Glaceon is a dog (ゆき)
Froakie and Greninja are toads (Over in the Meadow)
Oricorio is a canary (ゆりかごのうた)
Mudbray is a horse (Old MacDonald Had a Farm, Jingle Bells)
Bounsweet is a loquat (ゆりかごのうた)
Rookidee is a crow (ゆうやけこやけ, Over in the Meadow)

Completely out of left field
Psyduck is a snail (かたつむり)
Spoink is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Froakie is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Oricorio is both a cuckoo and an owl (しずかなこはん)
Dondozo and Tatsugiri are snails (かたつむり)
 
update: this thread appears to be gaining traction so if it does become a copypasta let me know cause i aint going on mons subreddits. professionals have standards
 
Mathy said:
Unexpected, but I agree
Bulbasaur is a frog (かえるのがっしょう)
Raticate is a muskrat (Over in the Meadow)
Azurill is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Fletchling and Talonflame are robins (Over in the Meadow)
Goomy and Goodra are snails (かたつむり)

At least somewhere in the ballpark
Pidgey is a pigeon (はとぽっぽ)
Fearow and possibly Dodrio are turkeys (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
Sneasel is a cat (ゆき)
Plusle and Minun are rabbits (うさぎ うさぎ)
Glaceon is a dog (ゆき)
Froakie and Greninja are toads (Over in the Meadow)
Oricorio is a canary (ゆりかごのうた)
Mudbray is a horse (Old MacDonald Had a Farm, Jingle Bells)
Bounsweet is a loquat (ゆりかごのうた)
Rookidee is a crow (ゆうやけこやけ, Over in the Meadow)

Completely out of left field
Psyduck is a snail (かたつむり)
Spoink is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Froakie is a rabbit (うさぎ うさぎ)
Oricorio is both a cuckoo and an owl (しずかなこはん)
Dondozo and Tatsugiri are snails (かたつむり)
Click to expand...
Ignoring the obvious ones, red text is clear failures, blue text is ones where there was a clear better choice, green is birds:
Bulbasaur being a frog(actually a toad) is mostly fine, though I still say dinosaur.
Raticate is a rat. A muskrat would probably be Floatzel.
The Marrill line being rabbits is reasonably accepted, even if the design is odd and there's other, more rabbit-like mons.
Fletchling/Talonflame are some sort of bird of prey, not a robin, but TBH I don't think anyone cared which early-route bird they chose for this.
Goomy and Goodra are slugs, which is close enough and there may have been issues with the Hisui forms given the timeline.

Pidgey is again an early-route bird, it's not the obvious choice but also they probably weren't thinking very hard.
Fearow and Dodrio are possibly the least-turkey birds possible but that's also true of every other bird in the games.
Sneasel is a weasel and there's a million cats to pick from.
Plusle and Minun as rabbits...eh? Again, there's better rabbits, but also that's close enough.
Glaceon(and all eevees) are foxes, though some of them are more cat and others are more dog. Why do that when there's actual dogs, though?
Froakie and Greninja are frogs and that's close enough to toads.
Oricorio is a different bird, but reasonably close in vibe
Mudbray evolves into a horse, it's fine
Bounsweet is based on a different fruit but they clearly just needed "a fruit-like mon" and didn't have better options
Rookidee evolves into a crow

Psyduck is a duck and there's actual snail mons, NO.
Spoink is a pig and there's actual rabbit mons, NO.
Froakie is a frog and there's actual rabbit mons, NO.
Oricorio is a native Hawaiian bird. I've been generous with birds so far, but there is legit an Owl line from the same generation, absolutely not.
Dondozo and Tatsugiri are fish and there's actual snail mons, NO.

There were a decent chunk of mons that are just "it's a bird, pick a flying-type at random"*, a decent chunk that are at least reasonably related or from a similar evolutionary line, and then a handful or absolutely random picks. Bounsweet as a Loquat or Fearow as a Turkey are perfect examples of them having to reasonably decide "close enough" from limited options, and I can't criticize Froakie as a Toad or Mudbray as a Horse in something aimed at small children. The distinction isn't relevant. But even being generous, there's some clear poor choices throughout that make me assume some sort of executive "we need a thing that uses Spoink in it" order came down and folks had to scramble to come up with anything they could.

*Of the 15 mons between the obvious and the insane, 5 are birds. The insane has 2 birds out of it's 5 lines.
 
bonus round: videos i didnt count because they didnt seem like hard confirmation or for other reasons
(color key for my reactions is same as the colors i used in the OP)

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone: As mentioned above, the word "dog" was changed into various Pokemon. The Pokemon that are named are Growlithe, Yamper, Lillipup, and Snubbul.

Falinks Go Marching/Ants Go Marching: Same case as the above, the animal was completely changed in the song. I can get behind Falinks being ants, though.

The More We Get Together: No references to animals in the lyrics, but there are 2 versions, each of which names different Pokemon apparently around a theme. The first version seems to imply that Glameow, Skitty, Meowstic, Meowth, Litten, Espurr, Weavile, Pikachu, and Eevee are all cats. The "Riolu and Friends" version seems to imply that Riolu, Maschiff, Mabosstiff, Greavard, Furfrou, Snubbull, Riolu, Yamper, and Growlithe are all dogs.

うさぎのダンス: The title is literally "Rabbit Dance", but I made the charitable assumption that the Pokemon are dancing like rabbits, not that they necessarily are rabbits. Taking the title and lyrics literally, however, would mean Scorbunny, Meowth-Galar, and Perrserker are rabbits.

むしのこえ: I mostly skipped this one because it was too confusing which Pokemon were being referred to, and the translation I found actually had different Japanese lyrics than the PKTV version, but it turns out the meaning is the same. The lyrics actually start out mentioning different kinds of crickets -- matsumushi and suzumushi -- but I'm not interested in splitting hairs over what kind of crickets the Kricketot line are supposed to be. The next verse mentions different bugs, however: koorogi (grasshopper), kutsuwamushi (katydid), and umaoi (a different katydid). The visuals are implying that Chingling and/or Maractus are grasshoppers, and that Grookey, Chatot, Meloetta, and/or Jigglypuff are katydids.

春の小川: Certainly not clear-cut, but "shrimp" are mentioned while Clauncher is on screen, which is notable because there's a Smogoff thread discussing just that.

まめまき: This is a song about the tradition of throwing beans at oni, which aren't real creatures. Glalie is very oni-like, but I think it, like Beartic and Pikachu, was just pretending to be one to amuse the children, as the festival usually goes.

こいのぼり: Magikarp and Gyarados were used for the small and big carp streamers respectively. They are also referred to as "father" and "child" in the song, so staying in the evo line makes the most sense. This kind of gets mangled with the "carp becoming a dragon" legend that is the inspiration for these mons, so I don't think it makes sense to interpret this as Gyarados literally being a carp.

ゆりかごのうた and Mr. Golden Sun: I arbitrarily decided to include only Polteageist as a non-living "species", but these songs use Lunatone for the Moon and Solrock for the Sun, respectively. The latter also portrays Castform-Sunny and Sunflora as "suns".

Bonus bonus: The titular character in The Muffin Man is a Pikachu. Pikachu is a featherless biped (as portrayed in the video), so this checks out.

Bonus bonus bonus: The Mareep-having Pikachu in Mary Had a Little Lamb has the male tail pattern. I'll let you guys decide what this implies.
 
Mova said:
Aren't Sneasel and its evo options supposed to be civets? They look like and are named after weasels but are more related to feliforms like cats.
Click to expand...
Not really? They're based on a yokai that is frequently depicted and named for a weasel. In terms of info on Sneasel itself, the Field egg group has pretty much every variety of mammal in it so I wouldn't say that puts them particularly close to carnivora.


Also man, it must really suck for Lokix to not get counted as a grasshopper because it's bad at singing.
 
Mathy said:
bonus round: videos i didnt count because they didnt seem like hard confirmation or for other reasons
(color key for my reactions is same as the colors i used in the OP)

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone: As mentioned above, the word "dog" was changed into various Pokemon. The Pokemon that are named are Growlithe, Yamper, Lillipup, and Snubbul.

Falinks Go Marching/Ants Go Marching: Same case as the above, the animal was completely changed in the song. I can get behind Falinks being ants, though.

The More We Get Together: No references to animals in the lyrics, but there are 2 versions, each of which names different Pokemon apparently around a theme. The first version seems to imply that Glameow, Skitty, Meowstic, Meowth, Litten, Espurr, Weavile, Pikachu, and Eevee are all cats. The "Riolu and Friends" version seems to imply that Riolu, Maschiff, Mabosstiff, Greavard, Furfrou, Snubbull, Riolu, Yamper, and Growlithe are all dogs.

うさぎのダンス: The title is literally "Rabbit Dance", but I made the charitable assumption that the Pokemon are dancing like rabbits, not that they necessarily are rabbits. Taking the title and lyrics literally, however, would mean Scorbunny, Meowth-Galar, and Perrserker are rabbits.

むしのこえ: I mostly skipped this one because it was too confusing which Pokemon were being referred to, and the translation I found actually had different Japanese lyrics than the PKTV version, but it turns out the meaning is the same. The lyrics actually start out mentioning different kinds of crickets -- matsumushi and suzumushi -- but I'm not interested in splitting hairs over what kind of crickets the Kricketot line are supposed to be. The next verse mentions different bugs, however: koorogi (grasshopper), kutsuwamushi (katydid), and umaoi (a different katydid). The visuals are implying that Chingling and/or Maractus are grasshoppers, and that Grookey, Chatot, Meloetta, and/or Jigglypuff are katydids.

春の小川: Certainly not clear-cut, but "shrimp" are mentioned while Clauncher is on screen, which is notable because there's a Smogoff thread discussing just that.

まめまき: This is a song about the tradition of throwing beans at oni, which aren't real creatures. Glalie is very oni-like, but I think it, like Beartic and Pikachu, was just pretending to be one to amuse the children, as the festival usually goes.

こいのぼり: Magikarp and Gyarados were used for the small and big carp streamers respectively. They are also referred to as "father" and "child" in the song, so staying in the evo line makes the most sense. This kind of gets mangled with the "carp becoming a dragon" legend that is the inspiration for these mons, so I don't think it makes sense to interpret this as Gyarados literally being a carp.

ゆりかごのうた and Mr. Golden Sun: I arbitrarily decided to include only Polteageist as a non-living "species", but these songs use Lunatone for the Moon and Solrock for the Sun, respectively. The latter also portrays Castform-Sunny and Sunflora as "suns".

Bonus bonus: The titular character in The Muffin Man is a Pikachu. Pikachu is a featherless biped (as portrayed in the video), so this checks out.

Bonus bonus bonus: The Mareep-having Pikachu in Mary Had a Little Lamb has the male tail pattern. I'll let you guys decide what this implies.
Click to expand...
you put riolu twice in the "the more we get together" summary
 
Ironmage said:
Not really? They're based on a yokai that is frequently depicted and named for a weasel. In terms of info on Sneasel itself, the Field egg group has pretty much every variety of mammal in it so I wouldn't say that puts them particularly close to carnivora.


Also man, it must really suck for Lokix to not get counted as a grasshopper because it's bad at singing.
Click to expand...
in regards to sneasel i was more assuming it was a twist on the kamaitachi but more catlike, rather than being directly based on the creature.

i'd be disappointed if lokix didnt count as a grasshopper. maybe its a locust?
 
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