Please speak to me through the body language of the gods!

122: Mr. Mime

Yeah, this was definitely one that was in need of a rewrite. My former opinion on Mr. Mime was that it was a horrible and awkward little gremlin of a creature that was way too uncomfortably close to human for me to be wholesale okay with the idea of catching it and making it fight rhino-shaped dinosaurs. Because I mean, look at it, it's just a man. But somewhat recently, I've come to a slight change of heart on the thing.

...I mean, yeah, I'm sure we can all agree that Detective Pikachu only highlights how weird Mr. Mime is, especially through its bizarre choice of art style. But it just clicked SOMETHING in me, like either it accentuated the absurdity of Mr. Mime's very existence, or the uncanny valley got so out of control it looped back around to being acceptable, or something, I don't know! Mr. Mime is just some bizarre little clown man that lives in the woods and uses psychic abilities to create invisible walls. (THAT much is definitely the most clever thing about it.) That's the weird little niche it fills in the Pokemon world, if you really want it. Pokemon wildlife is utter chaos and this thing's very existence is proof of that and I've learned to accept that now.

Not that I LOVE Mr. Mime now or anything, if I sat down and tried I'm sure I could design a mime monster I'd much rather have in Pokemon, but I at least respect its weird place in this franchise. Its design isn't bad, and I'm sure most of my uncanny valley complaints could be fixed by simply changing its skin white to match its body.

That and apparently The Pokemon Company begged the makers of Detective Pikachu not to put Mr. Mime in the movie, and I think that's hilarious.