318: Carvanha

Carvanha is a design we can really appreciate. Does it look anything like a real-life piranha? Hardly, but enough of the spirit of the piranha is there where you can totally buy this is meant to be at least a piranha-adjacent creature. All of it comes in the huge, exaggerated cartoon jaws with a toothy underbite and just an overall super aggressive demeanor. Feels very fitting for our first Water/Dark type!

Just how many Gen 3 Pokemon are gonna be 80% mouth?

319: Sharpedo

Suppose they're just on a roll with nailing two animals in a single line. Carvanha becomes Sharpedo, rather obviously a shark, but amusingly almost only the head of a shark, plus some fins for good measure. The idea clearly being that it's a torpedo, with it being able to travel extremely quickly. Though, torpedoes are long too y'know! It seems like a match made in heaven, but sharks are torpedoes are already so similar in shape that the shortness kinda feels like a cop-out. Like maybe it should've just been a plane-shaped thing, with how often shark faces are painted onto the noses of jets. Sharpedo's shortness is fun, of course, but it makes it feel like a middle-evo that's meant to become a full-fledged shark.

There is still amusement to be had in what's there, with the huge scar on its forehead making it look cool, and the coolest detail of the design is how its eyes are inside its "gills". But there's also the funny implication that Poke-Earth's sharks travel up freshwater rivers to spawn like salmon, since Carvanha is stated to live in freshwater and Sharpedoes live in the ocean. Can't imagine the Ursaring or Braviary are too eager to catch these while they're traveling up-river.

Ow the edge

Mega Sharpedo:

Honestly, another Mega form we forgot about. But this one has a thing or two about it. Now the thing is just plain covered in scars, which feels a bit excessive, but we guess it gets the job done of making it look really ragged and like it's seen many battles. Though we've always wondered what's up with that mouth. Regular Sharpedo had sets of teeth that feel like they got the job done, as opposed to here where it looks a little buck-tooth, some teeth are just the flush with its flesh, and like??? Some random bit of extra skin connecting its jaw together????? Okay then?

What IS neat about Mega Sharpedo here is that, while still looking like a shark head like the original, it's a little more plane-like in shape, especially with the chin + nose combo. Cause hey, it looks like a living jet decal now! It even animates a bit like one, so it looks like a cross between a submarine and a plane as well. Those "teeth" on its nose are also retractable, and add a bit of sawfish into the mix. Not out of nowhere either, because sawfish IS a type of shark! We would still like a proper sawfish Pokemon, especially since Megas are defunked, but it's there!