Grimer Family
I keep reviving Character Critiques with designs that make me stare at my keyboard for a hot minute… or sixty. The hiatus has been long enough!
Slime monsters live under a paradoxical existence. Due to their innate amorphous designs and popular inclusion in RPGs, they easily fall into forgotten generic territory. However, they’re also open to immeasurable creativity, as they aren’t bound to rigid anatomical constructions like most animals.
Basically, you can punch a lump of clay and call it a “slime,” yet there’s a fair amount of nuance to be discussed about these blobby creatures.
For Grimer, its aesthetic is what I refer to as “Cute Halloween.” This corrosive sludge pile is supposed to personify pollution and the consequences of man’s reckless behavior towards nature. And yet, Grimer’s dorky face and appearance likened to a bedsheet ghost creates a charming twist to an otherwise grim trope (similar to many family-friendly Halloween decorations).
Another major point of interest is Grimer’s textured body. Some of the folds along its baggy form are drawn-in lines, while many others are illustrated by wavy dark purple stripes. The result is an uncluttered variety to Grimer’s design.
An interesting lore development brought by Sun and Moon Versions is the endangered status of Grimer in Alola’s wild regions. Man’s foolishness brought the creature into existence, and yet there’s the threat of its extinction due to further tampering. It’s a fantastic analogy for humanity’s impact on nature (whether done intentionally or not), and the double-edged sword that evolution presents to any given species. This lore drastically improves upon Grimer’s appeal.
Even as an obligatory blob monster, Grimer is an unmistakable character.
Thumbs Up!
No, please… I beg of you, stop it with these triangle eyes and “Pokemon 2.0” concepts! I get that Grimer is an ever-growing sludge pile, but come on!
Credit where credit’s due, Muk is distinct from Grimer in silhouette, even if subtly so. Its body is triangular and stout compared to Grimer’s rounder, skinnier and smaller shape. The sludge stuck between its jaws is also a nice touch. The differences are mind-numbingly tiny, but they exist.
Ultra Sun also added a great blurb of text in that man-made sludge ponds are built in Alola in an effort to help Muk’s dwindling numbers. It’s an adorable thought that people are actively helping preserve a creature whose existence was previously painted as a mistake. We helped create this monster, but why not conserve its population for conservation’s sake?
This single Pokedex entry does a lot of legwork in giving Muk its appeal. But at the end of the day, it’s overshadowed by its predecessor’s goofy charm.
While searching for information on Muk, I was puzzled as to why I couldn’t remember much of its role in the Animé. It was one of Ash’s trusted companions in an early season, so I was dumbfounded that my childhood nostalgia was failing me.
This existential crisis turned out to be a false alarm, as Muk is a mythical appearance in the show’s ongoing history. For Ash’s in particular, at one time it existed as an easy plot device to pull Ash out of difficult Trainer battles. Outside of that, it (still) serves as a running gag by randomly pouncing Professor Oak.
If Muk lacked a previous evolution, all of my praises about its predecessor would apply to it. But with the Grimer as context, Muk is yet another unimpressive entry in the Pokedex. Yet another item to add to the “Pokemon 2.0” list.
Thumbs Down
Writing Character Critique articles helps me rediscover aspects of a design that I may have forgotten about or completely overlooked. Until now, I hadn’t truly noticed the impact that a few minor tweaks placed on Grimer’s Alolan form.
The addition of “eye shadow” on Grimer’s face give its sockets an inset appearance that pop compared to its original design. The goofy teeth further add to its “Cute Halloween” appeal. And while Grimer’s mouth may have an unfortunate shade of piss yellow, this tiny splash of color paired with a vivid blue tongue rejuvenates a previously simple monochromatic color scheme. The all-purple design isn’t terrible, but there’s a special flair to the new coat of paint.
Those teeth aren’t solely for comedy purposes. Alolan Grimer’s particular trash-based diet concentrates the resulting chemicals into crystals. So long as they don’t fall off, the crystals effectively quarantine the once harmful substances it consumed. Alola’s lore fantastically builds upon Grimer and turns it into a bittersweet yet hopeful story. Its Kanto lineage may be dwindling, but it has evolved into something greater. Evolution has turned it into a benefit to mankind and nature – but its toxic crystals are a reminder that said benefits must be treated with respect.
Similar to many Alolan variants, Grimer was given only a few changes. However, the execution of these ideas is what makes it so impressive.
Thumbs Up!
If there’s one gripe I have, it’s that this Grimer isn’t purple (a.k.a. the best color). I suppose I could just find a shiny, which brings that royal color back.
Speaking of which, Alolan Grimer has a cute Easter egg: its normal body colors are actually shiny on the original design, and vice versa. This suggests that Alolan Grimer are the result of incredibly rare mutations that eventually bloomed into dominant genes!
With my current plain writing style, this is the best way I can describe my thoughts when I first saw Alolan Muk:
HOLY COW!!!
This is an astounding alternate design! Muk is bursting with color and has a fantastic distribution of varying body crystals, making it striking to the eye. The terrible triangle eyes were fixed by having them sunken and not just plain white shapes. All of those Anime-eyed Pokemon I’ve reviewed were making me think the design choice was unsalvageable!
Game Freak made a brilliant choice by referencing glossy oil slicks, but there’s more to it. These colors often shift around on Muk’s body.
While not fully illustrated in the above GIF, in-game Muk’s palette will perfectly loop around every few seconds. When personally learning of this quirk, it sent Muk from “super cool” to “mind-blowing awesome” territory. It’s scarce (if not unique) for a Pokemon design to have such a feature.
Alolan Muk was a shoo-in to my party in Moon Version. A once run-of-the-mill blob monster has ascended to an unforgettable design with true heart behind it.
Highest Praise!
