Clefairy Family
Oh my goodness; Clefairy! It has remained as one of my favorite Pokémon of all time. As such, there’s a lot I can talk about this tiny pink fairy!
Clefairy’s design is easy to gloss over, as it’s arguably so close to other Pokémon and even Nintendo characters. Its proportions are small and stout, it almost always maintains a cheery demeanor, and its body is a bright, pastel pink.
Doesn’t that sound a lot like Jigglypuff and Kirby?
And yet, Clefairy has just enough unique details to stand out from the previous two characters. The curled tail and adorably small wings break up its silhouette into a distinguishable shape. Its arms aren’t merely stubs; clawed hands branch seamlessly from the ends of each limb.
Perhaps most unique of all are its eyes. I don’t know what to call the lines off the sides of its face, but they give Clefairy’s face extra flair. I especially like that the eyes are so small, instead of ginormous like typical “chibi” characters. It adds variety to the formula.
In the early Pokémon games, Clefairy shows a lot of personality. Its idle animation in Stadium is highly energetic and wavy, as if it’s dancing.
I wish this animation persisted into the current games, but that is sadly not the case:
Clefairy is still bouncy like before, but it’s casual about how it moves. The old personality is lost in this newer animation. I’m not against a Clefairy that keeps its composure, but I feel the cheerier attitude is more fitting and highly amusing when considering the lore behind it.
No matter what medium Clefairy shows up in, it’s universally known as one of the rarest creatures to find (and requires an equally rare Moon Stone to evolve). On moonlit nights, it can be seen dancing and singing around with others of its kind. This is the main reason why I prefer its original 3D animations. They better reflected this aspect of its life.
The other reason I love a dorkier, dance-happy Clefairy? It creates a humorous situation whenever it uses the move Metronome. This attack isn’t exclusive to Clefairy, but in the Kanto region it’s the earliest in-game Pokémon to naturally learn it. With the waggle of a finger, Clefairy can randomly unleash literally any attack in the known Pokémon universe (with only a few exceptions). That includes anything from Hyper Beam, to Explosion, to moves known by gods such as Palkia’s Spacial Rend and Arceus’ Judgement. That’s downright terrifying.
And when Clefairy seems to be frolicking around without a care in the world? It’s like it’s taunting any Trainer unfortunate enough to cross its path. It’s fully aware of the potential power it holds.
For the video games, this is where Clefairy’s Pokédex entries stop. However, the Anime goes one step further. In one episode, it illustrated Clefairy as an extraterrestrial alien that worshiped giant Moon Stones. Groups of Clefairy would dance around the Stone in hopes they could become great and powerful Clefables. I absolutely love this extra lore, and I wish it was canon outside of the TV series.
On a final note, there’s some interesting trivia about Clefairy’s origins. It was actually planned to be Pokémon’s mascot character, until Pikachu’s massive popularity made it take the spot instead.
It’s interesting to imagine how different things would be today had Clefairy kept that position. After all, the Anime would have been closer to the original Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga, and that means Clefairy would-
AHHH!
OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT-?!
WHAT IS WITH THE FACE-
NO! GO PUT THAT BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM!
Actually, I’m glad Clefairy didn’t take that route outside of the manga. I don’t think the “obnoxious sidekick” fits well. I’m much happier with Pikachu as the mascot and Clefairy being the wonderful, lighthearted pixie it is today.
Highest Praise!
I had an abundance of positive things to say about Clefairy. Unfortunately, it’s not the same for Clefable.
Put simply, it’s the “Pokémon 2.0” joke all over again. Clefable follows the same visual cues as Clefairy, making it just look like a grown-up version of Clefairy. While not an inherently bad concept, Clefable comes across as a bridge between one evolution to the next, just like Ivysaur or Nidorina. Since that isn’t the case, I’m not “Wowed” as much.
At the very least, Clefable’s wings add a nice splash of dark pink to its color pallette. The Pikachu-like ears work well with the rest of its design. It’s also great to see Clefable maintain the same eyes as Clefairy for that “innocent pixie” theme.
However, I’m not as big a fan of the hands losing their stubby claws. It was a small feature, but Clefable oddly looks plainer without it.
Clefable’s lore is drab compared to Clefairy’s. There isn’t much documented on this creature because of its extreme shyness towards humans. As a result, I don’t have a whole lot to ramble on about this Pokémon overall.
If Clefairy never existed, I could bet that Clefable would receive my highest praise. But as a final evolution, I find it rather underwhelming at best.
"Meh"
Rather than give Clefable another evolution, the second generation gave it a baby form: Cleffa. If I shot down Clefable for looking “too plain,” then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I find Cleffa even blander.
Logically, a baby character would look similar to its adolescent form. Many animals in the real world have such traits. However, Cleffa’s case is just like Pidgey and its evolutions. From a design standpoint, a Pokémon that barely changes throughout its evolutionary tree doesn’t leave a strong and lasting impact on the viewing audience.
Clefairy was already simplistic to begin with, but Cleffa pushes the concept further. On the one hand, it’s impressive just how minimalistic Game Freak could go with this design. On the other, it leaves Cleffa practically featureless. Most notably, there are no claws or other details to break up the stumpy arms and legs.
I will admit that Cleffa’s silhouette forming a star shape is a great touch. Its Pokédex entries detail that it appears during meteor showers, as if Cleffa is a shooting star itself! It suggests that Clefairy’s extraterrestrial origins in the Anime are also canon in the video games. At least a tiny bit of interesting lore came out of this Pokémon.
Ultimately, it’s a shame Clefairy was given a pre-evolution instead of a second form to grow into. Here’s crossing my fingers a Mega Clefable, region-exclusive form, or even a fourth evolution (just to mix things up) is planned for the future.
Thumbs Down
