Miltank, please, this is a kid's game

241: Miltank

Well, that animation loop is certainly a sight, thanks Miltank. Miltank is an odd addition to Gen 2 because in the invention of gender, they made certain Pokemon male-only and others female-only. Tauros was one of them, ending up being a male-only species, and then they introduce Miltank here to be the female-only counterpart and it's... just weird. It doesn't really look like it shares a species with Tauros, does it?

While Miltank is cute, it just kind of hangs onto a bunch of implications that get weird in the time gap between 2000 and 2022 and the inevitable act of going from child to adult. Like, a soft cow creature that heals things by feeding them its milk is cute in a purely innocent vacuum, but our adult mind can't let go of the fact that this thing is a serial breast feeder. It really doesn't help that this fact has made it one of the most perilous Pokemon to find wholesome fanart of.

Of course that's not super fair to Miltank cause it's not really its fault that the internet has hijacked it so much. But even as a design it doesn't hold its own very much. It looks more like a dog in a cow costume, not helped by the head markings looking like a "hood" of some kind and the resting ":3" face with a very canid nose. You can't even use the silly "does this pander to furries?" excuse with this one because as someones that hang out in furry circles, we've seen cow fursonas that are way more cow-like than this.

It's got a base amount of cuteness that ultimately gives it half a point we guess, but we'd still rather keep this thing no closer than arm's length.